THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

BEQUEST  OF 

Alice  R.  Hilgard 


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MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OP  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO.  ILLINOIS 


THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 

NEW  TORK 

THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON 

THE  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

TOKYO,  OSAKA,  KYOTO,  FUKUOKA,  SENDAI 

THE  MISSION  BOOK  COMPANY 

SHANGHAI 


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MADELINE    McDOWELL 
BRECKINRIDGE 


A  Leader  in  the  New  South 


By 

SoPHONisBA  Preston  \Breckinridge 


THE  university  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS  * 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Copyright  1921  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  October  192 1 


GIFT 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago.  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


How  is  the  strong  staff  broken^ 
and  the  beautiful  rod! 

— ^Jeremiah  48: 17 


M85S623 


^  C3B73 


PREFACE 

In  preparing  the  following  statement  with  reference 
to  my  sister's  work,  I  have  been  moved  by  many  con- 
flicting emotions.  When  I  have  thought  of  her,  herself, 
I  have  felt  so  inadequate  to  any  revelation  of  that  self 
that  I  have  let  my  pencil  drop  from  halting  fingers. 
We  knew  each  other  first  as  '^ grown  girls"  in  the  years 
1892  to  1895,  and  she  never  after  that  questioned  my 
love  for  her.  But  to  love  her  is  not  to  be  able  to  reveal 
or  to  interpret  her,  and  it  would  be  easier  to  rest  back 
on  my  inability. 

But  her  work  is  there,  and  the  record  of  that  work 
can  be  entered;  the  achievements  in  legislation  proposed, 
formulated,  urged,  and  later  interpreted  and  executed, 
in  two  great  institutions  builded,  in  organizations  devel- 
oped, and  in  the  vote  for  the  women  of  her  state  and  of 
the  United  States  secured,  are  there  to  be  stated,  and 
there  are  reasons  why  that  record  should  be  made  now 
rather  than  later.  There  seemed  to  be  no  one  else  who 
at  the  moment  had  both  the  time  and  the  access  to  papers, 
letters,  minutes  of  agencies  that  must  be  the  basis  of 
any  statement.  I  suppose  the  most  truly  humble  will 
undertake  a  task,  however  inadequate  she  .feels,  if  the 
task  should  be  performed  and  there  is  no  one  else  at 
hand  to  undertake  it.  It  is  in  that  spirit  that  the  following 
chapters  have  been  written.  Perhaps  at  some  later  date 
an  artist  may  portray  her  radiant  personality,  her 
courage,  her  gay  and  childlike  humor,  her  sparkling 
delight  in  beauty  everywhere.   If  an  attempt  to  do  that 


viii  PREFACE 

were  made,  the  following  record  would,  I  think,  not 
obstruct  or  confuse.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  it  might 
be  difficult  at  a  later  date  to  prepare  the  simple  state- 
ment. In  the  first  place,  besides  the  written  record 
there  is  available  now  the  testimony  of  associates  in  her 
work,  and  in  the  second  place,  the  record  that  now  seems 
only  amazing  would  later  seem  incredible.  For  it  is 
hterally  true,  although  it  is  most  difficult  to  believe, 
that  during  the  two  decades  from  1900  to  1920  the  story 
of  her  work  is  the  story  of  the  effort  in  Kentucky  toward 
a  more  modern,  a  juster,  nobler  life;  and  to  present  a 
simple  narrative  of  her  efforts  is  to  state  most  of  the 
important  problems  with  which  her  town,  her  state, 
and  her  country  were  called  on  during  that  period  to 
deal.  It  was  only  natural  that  when  she  died  there  was 
a  widespread  exclamation  of  loving  but  shocked  dismay 
that  Kentucky  had  lost  her  most  useful  citizen. 

"She  was  at  the  time  of  her  departure  from  .... 
life  undoubtedly  the  leading  citizen  of  the  Common- 
wealth  Who  will  take  her  place?"  (J.  E.  Keller). 

"I  feel  a  personal  loss,  but  by  far  the  greater  loss  .is  to  the 
community"  (Henry  T.  Duncan).  "Your  loss  is  the 
world's  loss"  (Nettie  R.  Shuler).  "Her  loss  is  one  that 
will  be  keenly  felt  in  state  and  nation  throughout  the 
years  to  come"  (Cora  Wilson  Stewart).  "Your  loss  is 
great,  but  that  of  Kentucky  and  of  the  nation  is  also 
great  indeed"  (J.  A.  Sullivan).  "This  great  loss  is  not 
merely  personal  to  you,  her  family,  and  friends  but 
reaches  to  every  individual  in  Kentucky"  (Claude  M. 
Thomas).  "The  state  and  country  have  sustained  a 
great  loss"  (C.  C.  Calhoun,  John  M.  Welch).  "We 
grieve  ....  but  far  greater  is  the  loss  to  state  and 


PREFACE  ix 

city  of  one  who  in  her  generation  was  easily  their  most 
useful  citizen"  (Murray  R.  Hubbard).  "The  state  and 
nation  have  suffered  in  her  death  a  distinct  loss  that 
cannot  be  replaced"  (Elwood  Hamilton).  "She  will  be 
sorely  missed  by  our  city,  and  state  "(Wood  G.  Dunlap). 
"She  was  undoubtedly  the  first  citizen  of  Kentucky" 
(Louis  B.  Wehle).  "She  was  the  greatest  citizen  of  the 
state,  man  or  woman  "  (Alice  M.  Molloy) .  "  She  did  more 
for  Lexington  in  many  ways  than  any  other  man  or 
woman  who  has  ever  lived  here"  (Ernest  B.  Bradley). 
These  are  a  few  of  the  exclamations  of  amazed  distress 
that  poured  in  from  individuals  in  widely  scattered 
localities;  and  the  press  uttered  the  same  conviction. 
A  paragraph  from  the  Louisville  Herald  niay  be  quoted 
as  an  illustration  of  the  universal  sense  of  public  loss 
resulting  from  her  death. 

....  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that,  through  the  passing  of 
Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge,  Kentucky  has  suffered  the 
loss  of  her  most  distinguished  woman  citizen.  Justice,  rather  than 
courtesy,  requires  that  one  signal  the  loss  to  the  Commonwealth 
of  a  force,  a  soul,  an  intelligence,  and  an  influence  that  transcended 
every  limitation  of  the  sexes  and  placed  Mrs.  Breckinridge  in 
the  very  forefront,  if  not  actually  in  the  lead,  of  those  of  whom 
this  state  of  proud  traditions  may  say  with  a  pride  renewed  and 
resurgent  that  they  have  deserved  well  of  the  country 

It  is  surely  well,  then,  that  so  much  of  her  work  as 
can  be  recorded,  be  recorded  now. 

I  should  like  to  say  a  word  here  about  her  name. 
She  was  named  Magdalen,  after  her  aunt,  Miss  Magdalen 
Harvey  McDowell,  who  was  known  to  the  wide  connec- 
tion of  younger  relatives  and  friends  as  "Aunt  Mag." 
The  name  was  an  old  name  in  the  family,  for  Magdalena 


X  PREFACE 

Wood  was  the  great-grandmother  of  her  grandfather, 
Dr.  WilHam  Adair  McDowell,  and  of  his  wife,  Maria 
Hawkins  Harvey,  and  the  name  was  found  in  each 
generation.  But  when  relatives  began  to  abbreviate 
her  name  to  Maggie  or  Maddy,  Aunt  Mag  rebelled  and 
asked  that  she  take  the  French  form  Madeleine  as  her 
name  (she  later  dropped  the  e)  and  adopt  Madge  as  the 
abbreviation.  I  knew  her  only  as  ''Madge"  and  shall 
allow  myself  to  speak  of  her  by  that  name  when  to  try 
to  use  any  other  would  keep  me  from  thinking  only  of 
what  she  was  trying  to  do  at  any  time. 

Her  organized  activities  followed  on  the  whole  four 
main  lines  of  effort:  (i)  developing  the  educational  and 
recreational  opportunities  for  the  poorer  children  both 
in  Lexington  and  in  the  state  at  large;  (2)  providing 
resources  for  the  treatment  and  cure  of  the  victims  of 
tuberculosis;  (3)  organizing  sound  case  work  in  the  field 
of  charitable  effort;   (4)   securing  "votes  for  women.'' 

In  attempting  to  record  those  activities,  I  have  as 
far  as  possible  used  her  own  words  and  to  the  extent 
to  which  I  have  been  skilful  in  using  them  her  personality 
may  emerge. 

It  is,  of  course,  not  possible  in  such  a  statement  as 
this  to  include  a  complete  history  of  the  various  organiza- 
tions that  will  be  referred  to.  I  hope  that  this  record 
may  facilitate  the  preparation  of  such  a  history  at  a  later 
date.  In  this  connection  I  should  like  to  speak  briefly  of 
the  quotations  from  her  writings  or  from  her  speeches  that 
I  have  included  in  this  statement.  They  seem  many, 
but  two  motives  have  governed  me.  There  is  as  yet  no 
history  of  the  movement  for  women's  rights  in  the  present 
century.  Her  statements  were  in  response  to  the  situation 


PREFACE  xi 

she  faced.  They  therefore  not  on'y  exhibit  her  methods 
and  her  power,  but  they  reveal  the  situation  with  which 
she  dealt.  And  the  sanction  of  success  was  put  upon 
them  on  January  7,  1920,  when  the  federal  amendment 
was  ratified  by  the  state  legislature.  It  is  my  hope  that 
these  and  other  statements  of  hers  that  may  be  made 
available  to  students  of  the^  movement  may  make  easier 
the  writing  of  a  history  of  that  great  undertaking  and 
may  also  make  clearer  the  difficulties  growing  out  of  the 
United  States  organization  by  which  matters  of  national 
importance  are  left  to  the  determination  of  state  legisla- 
tures. 

One  great  fear  that  is  always  with  me  is  that  of  seeming 
at  times  to  claim  for  her  credit  she  would  not  have  wished 
to  claim,  credit  due  rather  to  a  co-worker  than  to  her. 
If  such  a  mistake  should  be  made,  the  reader  will  under- 
stand it  to  be  due  to  lack  of  knowledge  or  to  a  limited 
capacity  for  expression  on  my  part.  No  one  wishing 
to  perpetuate  her  memory  or  to  enlarge  the  understanding 
of  her  would  wilfully  claim  for  her  anything  due  to  another. 

Besides  these  "main  Hues  of  effort''  referred  to  above, 
she  rendered  innumerable  services  that  can  hardly  be 
named,  whose  value  to  the  community  can  certainly 
never  be  estimated.  For  example,  as  one  goes  about  the 
city  today,  it  is  suddenly  suggested  by  a  graceful  curve 
in  the  road,  a  charm  of  local  planning,  or  by  the  presence 
of  unexpected  and  lovely  vegetation,  that  a  skilled 
landscape  gardener  and  town-planner  must  have  been 
responsible;  and  one  remembers  that,  during  those  years 
after  1904,  when  Mr.  T.  A.  Combs  was  mayor,  she  pro- 
posed the  creation  of  a  Park  Commission,  she  helped 
select  the  personnel,  she  persuaded  the  Commission  that 


xii  PREFACE 

the  best  was  none  too  good  for  Lexington,  and  Frederick 
Law  Olmsted  was  brought  out  to  plan  some  proposed  de- 
velopments. Here  the  City  Administration,  the  Herald, 
the  Louisville  authorities  co-operated;  but  hers  was  the 
suggestion,  the  guiding  hand,  and  the  constant  stimulus. 
I  want  to  say  just  a  word  about  my  brother,  her 
husband,  and  about  her  sister  Nettie,  Mrs.  Bullock. 
I  could  not  have  done  anything  without  their  sympathy; 
and  if  the  following  record  is  published  rather  than 
simply  deposited  in  some  safe  place  with  other  papers, 
it  is  because  they  think  it  not  an  injustice  to  Madge 
and  her  work  that  it  be  published. 

SoPHONiSBA  P.  Breckinridge 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PACE 

i.  Her  Ancestry i 

II.  Her  Childhood  and  Youth lo 

III.  The  Beginning  of  Her  Public  Service  ....  33 

IV.  The  Civic  League — General  Survey  of  Its  Activi- 

ties  '  .     .     .     .  45 

V.  The  Civic  League — Socdvl  Legislation  .     ...  80 

VI.  The  Civic  League — ^The  Abraham  Lincoln  School  91 

VII.  The  Campaign  against  Tuberculosis      ....  125 

VIII.  The  Associated  Charities  . 156 

IX.  Early  Efforts  in  Behalf  of  Women       ....  182 

X.  Votes  for  Women 199 

XI.  The  End  of  the  Struggle 230 

Appendix  A.  Resolutions  Adopted  at  the  Time  of  Her 
Death  by  Various  Social  and  Civic  Organiza- 
tions      249 

Appendix  B.    She  Is  Dead      .     .     .     .      .     .  '    .     .     .  265 

Index 269 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge Frontispiece 

FACING 

Judge  Samuel  McDowell  of  Mercer,  after  a  Portrait  ^^°" 

BY  Matthew  Harris  Jouett i 

Dr.  William  Adair  McDowell,  Crayon  Drawing     .     .  3 

Mrs.    William    Adair    (Maria    Harvey)    McDowell, 

Crayon  Drawing 3 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  Clay  in  Their  Old  Age,  Photo- 
graph      5 

The  Venezuelan  Delegation  Placing  Bronze  Wreath 

ON  Tomb  of  Henry  Clay,  May  8,  1921 7 

The  Children  at  "  Woodlake  "    . 11 

The  Garden  at  Ashland .  14 

"Mr.  Clay's  Path"  at  Ashland  ........  14 

Dining-Room  at  Ashland,  Showing  Portrait  of  Col. 
Henry  Clay,  Jr.,  by  Oliver  Frazer,  and  Portrait  of 

Mrs.  Henry  Clay  McDowell  by  Benoni  Irwin  .     .  19 

Miss  Magdalen  Harvey  McDowell,  "Aunt  Mag"  .     .  22 

Stairway  at  Ashland,  Showing  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Henry 

Clay  by  Oliver  Frazer 28 

Madge  and  Her  Father  at  Ashland 32 

A  Group  at  Ashland 32 

Madge,  in  1884,  1889,  1893,  1898 37 

The  Venezuelan  Delegation  Being  Shown  Thorough- 
bred Horses  at  Ashland,  May  8,  192 1 47 

Two  Views  OF  "Irishtown"  IN  1901 50 

XV 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


The  Wading  Pool  in  Woodland  Park 67 

''337  Linden  Walk" 73 

Major  Henry  Clay  McDowell,  Photograph  ....  88 

The  Abraham  Lincoln  SCH09L 94 

The   Out-Door   Class   and   the   Gymnasium   Class  at 

Lincoln  School 106 

The  Montessori  Room  in  the  Lincoln  School     .     .     .  iii 

The   Laundry  and  the    Carpenter   Shop   at  Lincoln 

School 114 

Ordering  from  the  Grocer  at  Lincoln  School    .     .     .  119 

Buildings  of  the  Blue  Grass  Sanatorium 141 

Photograph  of  Madge,  19 13,  at  Ashland   .     ....  201 

Henry  Clay,  at  Age  of  43,  after  Portrait  by  Matthew 

Harris  JouETT     .     .     ,     .     .     .     ." 205 

Photograph  of  Madge,  1914,  in  Chicago 212 

Desha  Breckinridge,  1920 216 

Family  Party  at  Ashland,  May  19,1917 231 

Portrait  of  Madge  at  Lincoln  School      .     .     .     .     .  236 

Lincoln  School  and  the    Civic  League  Celebrating 

Her  Birthday  at  Ashland,  May  20,  192 1       .     .     .  243 


JUDGE  SAMUEL  McDOWELL  OF  MERCER 
(After  a  portrait  by  Matthew  Harris  Jouett) 


CHAPTER  I 
HER  ANCESTRY 

What  Kentuckmns  have  done  Kentuckians  may  do.  To  me  the  in- 
spiration of  the  past  seems  to  call  to  the  inspiration  of  the  future.  I  think 
every  Kentuckian  may  pronounce  with  the  English  poet  that  invocation,  to 
the— 

*' Spirits  of  old  that  bore  me, 
And  set  me  meek  of  mind, 
Between  great  deeds  before  me, 
And  deeds  as  great  behind. ^^^ 

There  was  no  Kentucky  of  which  she  was  not  a  part. 
Her  grandfather's  grandfather,  Judge  Samuel  McDowell, 
born  October  29,  1735,  of  Scotch-Irish  Calvinist  immi- 
grant parents,  John  and  Magdalena  Wood  McDowell,^ 
in  Pennsylvania,  moved  to  Mercer  County,  Kentucky, 
in  1784.  His  parents  had  gone  from  Pennsylvania  to 
Virginia.  He  served  in  the  French  and  Indian  Wars 
of  1756  and  was  because  of  those  services  in  1775  awarded 
by  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  a  large  tract  of  land 
in  Fayette  County;  he  was  several  times  elected  to  the 
Virginia  House  of  Burgesses;  he  was  a  member  of  the 
notable  convention  in  1776  which  instructed  the  Virginia 
delegates  in  the  Continental  Congress  to  declare  the 
United  Colonies  to  be  free  and  independent  states; 
during  the  Revolution  he  was  colonel  of  a  regiment 
of  volunteers  from  Augusta  County  and  took  a  con- 
spicuous part  at  the  battle  of  Guilford  Courthouse, 
North  Carolina   (March   15,  1781).     He  was  afterward 

*  A  quotation  from  one  of  her  speeches. 
'  They  had  come  in  1729. 


2  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

appointed  surveyor  of  public  lands  in  Fayette  County, 
which  constituted  at  that  time  one- third  of  the  "District 
of  Kentucky";  he  sat  as  one  of  three  justices  in  the  first 
district  court  held  in  Kentucky — in  Harrodsburg — 
March  3,  1783,  and  in  1786  he  was  one  of  the  judges 
who  presided  over  the  first  county  court  held  in  the 
Kentucky  district. 

In  the  struggle  of  the  next  seven  to  nine  years,  when 
the  status  of  the  District  of  Kentucky  was  being  agitated 
and  conspiracies  were  being  formed  to  entangle  this 
region  rather  with  the  old-world  autocracies  still  holding 
lands  and  power  in  the  Mississippi  region,  he  was  the 
pre-eminent  presiding  and  judicial  officer.  He  presided 
over  the  nine  conventions  that  met  in  Danville  during 
this  exciting  period  of  Kentucky's  struggle  to  become  a 
state,^  and  over  the  convention  that  drafted  the  first 
constitution^  of  the  new  state;  and  when  Kentucky 
had  become  a  state,  he  was  appointed  by  President 
Washington,  United  States  judge  for  the  state  of  Ken- 
tucky.   He  died  in  181 7. 

"His  solid  attainments,  his  social  position,  his  ma- 
tured convictions,  his  high  character,  his  judicial  temper, 
his  fine  public  life  combined  to  centre  upon  him  the 
attention,  confidence  and  respect  of  able  men  associated 
with  him.  "3 

The  fourth  child  of  Judge  Samuel  McDowell  was 
named  Samuel  and  became  known  as  "Judge  Samuel 
McDowell   of   Mercer,"    to   distinguish   him   from   his 

*  December  27,  1784;  May  23,  1785;  August  8,  1785;  September  7,  1786; 
January  1, 1787;  July  28, 1788;  July  20, 1789;  July  26, 1790;  December,  179 1. 

'April  3,  1792. 

3  T.  M.  Green,  Historic  Families  of  Kentucky,  pp.  31  f. 


DR.  WILLIAM  ADAIR  McDOWELL 


MRS.  WILLIAM  ADAIR  (MARIA  HARVEY 
MCDOWELL 


Crayon  Sketches  by  Miss  Magdalen  Harvey  McDowell 


HER  ANCESTRY  3 

illustrious  father.  He  was  born  in  Virginia  in  1764  and 
came  with  his  parents  in  1784  to  Kentucky.  He  took 
part  in  the  Northwest  campaigns  against  the  Indians 
and  was  appointed  in  1792  first  United  States  marshal 
of  Kentucky,  a  position  that  he  held  until  the  administra- 
tion of  Jefferson  brought  in  officials  of  a  different  political 
faith. 

A  younger  brother,  Ephraim,  Judge  Samuel  Mc- 
Dowell's ninth  child,  was  a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  surgery, 
to  whose  labors  women  are  peculiarly  indebted.  He  was 
bom  in  Virginia  in  1771  and  moved  with  his  father  to 
Kentucky.  He  later  studied  in  Georgetown  and  Bards- 
town  and  in  Staunton,  Virginia,  under  the  learned  Dr. 
Humphrey.  In  1793-94  he  went  to  Edinburgh  to  pursue 
his  medical  studies  and  there  heard  from  John  Bell  the 
suggestion  that  the  only  treatment  for  the  ovarian 
tumor  would  be  in  the  direction  of  such  surgical  treat- 
ment as  might  some  time  prove  possible.  He  was, 
however,  the  first  to  risk  the  experiment  of  ovariotomy; 
and  the  account  of  the  heroic  experiment  in  Danville 
in  1809,  in  which  the  patient  submitted  without  anaes- 
thetics to  his  treatment,  risking  an  earlier  death  while 
he  risked  mobbing  in  case  of  failure,  is  one  of  the  finest 
pages  in  the  early  heroic  annals  of  Kentucky.  "  Wherever 
surgery  is  known  his  name  is  known.  How  much  of 
human  suffering  he  eliminated,  how  many  lives  he  saved 
through  what  he  taught  the  world  can  never  be  known. " 
Dr.  McDowell  married  the  beautiful  daughter  of  Isaac 
Shelby,  Kentucky's  first  governor.  He  died  June  20, 
1830. 

Her  grandfather,  William  Adair  McDowell,  the  fourth 
son   of   Judge    Samuel   McDowell    of   Mercer   County, 


4  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

was  likewise  a  pioneer,  this  time  in  the  field  of  medical 
science.  He  was  born  in  1795,  studied  in  Danville,  then 
at  Washington  and  Lee  University,  interrupting  his  course 
to  take  part  in  the  War  of  181 2,  later  was  graduated  in 
medicine  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  taught  for 
a  time  in  Alabama,  and  from  1838  practiced  in  Louis- 
ville. He  devoted  much  time  to  experimental  research 
and  in  1843  published  a  book  on  the  Curability  of  Pul- 
monary Consumption  in  All  Its  Stages,  based  on  the  re- 
sults of  his  own  experiments  and  investigations.  Madge 
was  always  greatly  interested  in  the  history  of  his  life 
and  in  1906  wrote  an  extensive  review  of  his  treatise 
for  the  Journal  of  Outdoor  Life.^ 

Of  the  role  played  in  the  history  of  the  United  States 
by  her  great-grandfather,  Henry  Clay,  the  Great  Com- 
moner, it  is  hardly  necessary  to  speak.  In  1835  Harriet 
Martineau,  the  distinguished  English  economist  and 
writer,  became,  while  visiting  in  the  United  States,  a 
warm  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Clay  and  later  wrote  for 
her  English  readers  an  account  of  him  that  may  be  in 
part  quoted  here: 

Mr.  Clay  is  my  personal  friend  ....  It  is  only  after  much 
intercourse  that  Mr.  Clay's  personal  appearance  can  be  discovered 
to  do  him  any  justice  at  all.  All  attempts  to  take  his  likeness 
have  been  in  vain,  though  upwards  of  thirty  portraits  of  him, 
by  different  artists,  were  in  existence  when  I  was  in  America. 
No  one  has  succeeded  in  catching  the  subtle  expression  of  placid 
kindness,  mingled  with  astuteness,  which  becomes  visible  to  the 

eyes  of  those  who  are  in  daily  intercourse  with  him His 

conversation  is  rich  in  information,  and  full  charged  with  the 
spirit  of  justice  and  kindliness,  rising,  on  occasion,  to  a  moving 
magnanimity 

'  III  (1906),  344- 


MR.  AND  MRS.  HENRY  CLAY  IN  THEIR  OLD  AGE 
Photograph  by  E.  Anthony,  New  York 


HER  ANCESTRY  5 

Mr.  Clay  is  the  son  of  a  clergyman  in  Virginia,  and  was  born 
in  April,  1777.  His  father  died  when  he  was  quite  young;  and  he 
was  in  consequence  left  to  the  common  educational  chances  which 
befriend  all  the  young  citizens  of  the  United  States.  He  studied 
law,  after  leaving  the  common  school  at  which  his  education 
began,  and  settled  early  at  Lexington,  in  Kentucky,  where  his 
residence  has  ever  since  been  fixed.  His  first  important  act  was 
labouring  diligently  in  favour  of  a  plan  for  the  gradual  abolition 
of  slavery  in  Kentucky,  which  was  proposed  in  1 798.  His  exertions 
were,  however,  in  vain.  In  1803,  he  entered  the  legislature  of  his 
State,  and  in   1806  was  sent  with  the   dignity  of  senator,  to 

Washington,  having  not  quite  attained  the  requisite  age In 

181 1,  he  became  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  for 
three  years  exercised  in  that  situation  a  powerful  influence  over 
the  affairs  of  the  country.  In  1814,  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
Commissioners  who  negociated  the  treaty  of  Ghent;  and  when  that 
business  was  concluded,  he  repaired  to  London,  with  his  colleagues, 
Messrs.  Adams  and  Gallatin,  and  there  concluded  the  commercial 
convention  which  was  made  the  basis  of  all  the  subsequent  com- 
mercial arrangements  between  the  United  States  and  Europe. 
In   1825,  Mr.  Clay  accepted  the  appointment  of  Secretary  of 

State  under  Mr.  Adams While  in  this  office,  he  did  a  great 

deal  in  procuring,  with  much  labour  and  difficulty,  a  recognition 
of  the  independence  of  the  Spanish  colonies  in  South  America;  a 
recognition  which  had  the  all-important  effect  of  deterring  the 
great  European  powers  from  their  contemplated  intervention  on 
behalf  of  Spain.  Mr.  Clay's  speeches  were  read  at  the  head  of 
the  armies  of  the  South  American  republics;  and  if  his  name  were 
forgotten  everywhere  else,  it  would  stand  in  the  history  of  their 
independence.' 

And,  in  connection  with  Miss  Martineau's  tribute 
of  seventy-five  or  eighty  years  ago,  a  very  modern 
tribute  to  the  work  of  Mr.  Clay  in  urging  the  protection 
of  the  struggle  for  liberty  of  the  South  American  repub- 
Hcs  may  also  be  quoted.     On  April  19,  192 1,  there  were 

*  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  I,  290  ff. 


6  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

simultaneously  unveiled  in  New  York,  a  statue  of  the 
Venezuelan  statesman  Simon  Bolivar,  and  in  Caracas, 
a  statue  of  George  Washington.  At  the  unveiling  in 
New  York,  President  Harding  spoke  and  there  was 
present  a  delegation  who  had  come  from  Venezuela 
for  the  occasion.  After  the  unveiling  in  New  York, 
the  Venezuelan  delegation  proceeded  to  Kentucky,  and 
on  Sunday,  May  8,  with  formal  exercises  in  which  the 
governor  of  the  state,  the  city  officials,  and  descendants 
of  the  great  statesman  took  part,  a  great  bronze  wreath 
was  placed  on  the  tomb  of  Mr.  Clay  by  Dr.  Estaban 
Gil-Borges,  Venezuelan  minister  of  foreign  affairs  and 
head  of  the  delegation.  In  placing  the  wreath,  Dr. 
Gil-Borges  said: 

After  the  homage  rendered  in  New  York  to  the  memory  of  the 
Liberator,  it  is  but  right  that  we  should  come  here  to  present  this 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  Henry  Clay  and  that  we  should  stand 
in  the  light  of  the  glory  of  the  two  men  who  associated  their  thoughts 
and  their  actions  to  the  end  of  the  American  redemption  and 
American  solidarity. 

Now,  on  the  same  soil,  under  the  same  sky,  they  are  as  two 
brothers  before  one  hearthstone,  two  men  who  gave  the  love  of 
their  heart  and  the  light  of  their  thought  to  their  ideal  of  liberty 
and  fraternity  for  the  peoples  of  America. 

In  Henry  Clay  we  come  to  honor  one  of  the  highest  virtues 
of  your  country.  He  is  the  expression  of  idealism  that  under  the 
surface  of  your  practical  life  gives  to  your  national  soul  the  sensi- 
tiveness which  responds  promptly  to  every  appeal  to  Justice  and 
that  gives  to  your  national  character  an  incomparable  high-relief 
of  moral  grandeur. 

Today,  as  in  the  time  of  Henry  Clay,  American  idealism  has 
passed  over  the  world  as  a  living  force  that  has  raised  the  soul 
of  peoples  and  has  saved  the  otherwise  uncertain  destiny  of  Civili- 
zation. 


THE  TOMB  OF  HENRY  CLAY 

Dr.  Estaban  Gil-Borges  placing  a  bronze  wreath  on  the  tomb  May  8, 
192 1,  in  the  presence  of  the  other  members  of  the  Venezuelan  Delegation, 
the  officers  of  the  state,  the  county  the  city,  and  of  a  great  throng  of 
citizens. 


HER  ANCESTRY  7 

We  have  come  here  to  give  testimony  that  the  American  ideal 
of  Simon  Bolivar  and  Henry  Clay  unite  the  spirit  and  the  heart 
of  the  great  family  of  peoples  of  this  hemisphere.  I  am  most 
happy  to  have  been  called  upon  to  fulfil  the  wish  of  my  country 
and  my  Government  that  this  testimonial  be  reverently  placed 
before  the  bier  of  the  noble  statesman,  who  in  the  most  critical 
hour  of  our  national  life,  gave  his  sympathy  as  a  balm  to  our 
sorrows  and  his  eloquent  word  as  a  sustaining  help  and  stimulus 
to  our  efforts  for  South  American  liberty. 

Of  the  family  into  which  Mr.  Clay  married,  however, 
that  of  Lucretia  Hart,  less  is  generally  known.  Yet 
through  her  family  the  first  claim,  on  Kentucky  was 
perhaps  acquired.  For  Mrs.  Clay^s  father,  Thomas 
Hart,  with  his  brother  Nathaniel,  were  members  of  that 
ambitious  Transylvania  Company  which  in  1774'  pur- 
chased a  princely  realm  from  the  Indians. 

The  Hart  family  had  settled  in  Hanover  County,  Vir- 
ginia, in  1690.  About  1760  Mrs.  Clay's  widowed  grand- 
mother moved  with  her  six  children  to  Orange  County, 
North  Carolina.  Her  father,  Thomas  Hart,  was  a  member 
of  two  provincial  congresses  of  North  Carolina,  in  1774 
and  in  1775,  and  was  an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary 
army.  He  married  Susannah  Gray,  whose  father  was  an 
officer  in  the  royal  army,  and  moved  in  1780  to  Maryland. 
He  did  not  move  to  Kentucky  until  1794,  when  he  came 
with  his  family  to  Lexington.  But  this  was  the  fulfilment 
of  a  wish  which  he  had  cherished  for  eighteen  years  and 
which  only  his  wife's  objection  had  prevented  his  carrying 
out.  He  was  then  sixty-three  years  old  but  "never 
satisfied  as  long  as  there  were  new  countries  to  be  found. '' 
His  brother  had  come  out  at  an  earlier  date,  and  both 
were  men  of  large  affairs.     Thomas  was  a  merchant  on  a 

*  R.  H.  Collins,  History  of  Kentucky  (Covington,  Ky.,  1874),  II,  326. 


8  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

great  scale,  and,  besides  the  partnership  in  the  Transyl- 
vania enterprise  and  its  resulting  claims,  he  established  a 
mercantile  business,  nail  and  rope  factories,  large  black- 
smith shops,  and  so  forth.  In  fact,  he  made  a  great 
fortune,  which  he  spent  in  part  in  generous  and  lavish 
hospitality.  To  his  home  came  visitors  from  all  distant 
parts  of  the  country.  "Not  a  day,''  he  wrote,  ^'passes 
over  our  heads  I  cannot  have  a  half  a  dozen  strange  gentle- 
men dine  with  us,  and  they  are  from  all  parts  of  the 
Union.  "^ 

It  was  from  this  home  of  wealth  and  generous  living 
that  the  daughter  Lucretia  married  on  April  ii,  1799, 
the  young  lawyer  recently  immigrated  from   Virginia. 

Their  son,  Henry  Clay,  Jr.,  Madge's  maternal  grand- 
father, a  graduate  of  West  Point,  was  killed  at  the  battle 
of  Buena  Vista,  February  22-23,  1^475  hiis  wife,  Julia 
Prather,  was  the  descendant  of  two  families,  the  Prathers 
and  the  Fountaines,  of  French  Huguenot  descent,  who 
had  been  among  the  early  settlers  in  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky. Two  of  his  sons  lost  their  lives  in  the  Civil  War, 
the  one,  Henry,  in  the  Union  army  and  the  other,  Thomas, 
with  the  Confederate  forces. 

Kentucky,  then,  belonged  to  Madge  by  right  of 
conquest  over  the  Red  Men,  over  the  forces  of  nature, 
over  the.  forces  of  ignorance  and  prejudice  in  the  field 
of  surgery  and  medicine  so  hostile  to  the  health  of  the 
people.  She  belonged  to  Kentucky  by  right  of  five 
generations  of  service  and  devotion.  What  interested 
Kentucky  was  her  interest;  what  interested  her  must 
be  of  concern  to  the  community  with  whose  life  her  life 
was  one. 

«  Quoted  by  Judge  Charles  Kerr  in  the  Lexington  Herald,  April  15,  191 7. 


HER  ANCESTRY  9 

Only  by  understanding  this  reciprocal  relationship 
is  it  easy  to  understand  her.  She  was  so  modest,  yet  so 
aggressive;  so  humble-minded,  yet  so  assured;  so  without 
claim  for  herself  as  an  individual,  so  peremptory  in 
demanding  the  best  for  the  community. 

The  following  account  has  been  prepared  with  this 
identification  of  her  life  with  the  life  of  the  state  always 
in  mind.  It  is  put  forth  not  for  the  glorification  of  her 
individual  efforts,  but  in  an  attempt  to  record  for  those 
who  come  after,  the  rich  contribution  possible  to  one 
who,  losing  her  life  in  that  of  her  city  and  state,  finds 
her  pathway  finally  opening  out  upon  a  field  of  inter- 
national endeavor  and  world-service. 


CHAPTER  II 
HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH 

Of  speckled  eggs  the  birdie  sings 
And  nests  among  the  trees,  .... 

— Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 

She  was  born  May  20,  1872,  at  Woodlake,  Franklin 
County,  Kentucky,  the  youngest  but  one  in  a  family  of 
four  boys,  Henry  Clay,  William  Adair,  Thomas  Clay, 
and  Ballard,  and  three  girls,  Nanette,  Mrs.  Thomas  S. 
Bullock,  now  living  at  Ashland,  Julia,  Mrs.  William  B. 
Brock,  and  herself.  Of  the  seven  children  the  five  oldest 
survive.  The  death  of  the  youngest,  Ballard,  at  the  age 
of  four,  was  the  shadow  over  the  early  years. 

Her  father.  Major  Henry  Clay  McDowell,  was  born 
in  Fincastle,  Botetourt  County,  Virginia,  February  9, 
1832.  He  spent  his  childhood  and  youth,  however,  in 
Louisville,  where  he  was  graduated  at  the  University  of 
Louisville  Law  School  and  took  up  the  practice  of 
law  in  the  firm  of  Ballard  and  McDowell.  On  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War  he  entered  the  Union  army  and 
was  aide  to  General  A.  McDowell  McCook.  From  1862 
to  1864  he  was  United  States  marshal  for  Kentucky. 
In  1870  he  moved  to  Franklin  County  where  he  bought  a 
home,  known  as  ^'Woodlake,"  in  a  beautiful  section  of 
the  county.  Here  she  played  outdoors  with  boys  and 
girls — the  Proctor  boys,  for  instance,  whose  father  was 
then  state  geologist  and  was  afterward  secretary  of  the 
United  States  Civil  Service  Commission;  the  Crittenden 

10 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  ii 

children,  whose  great-grandfather,  John  J.  Crittenden, 
bore  one  of  Kentucky's  great  names,  for  he  had  been 
governor,  member  of  the  Kentucky  legislature  and  member 
of  the  United  States  Congress  in  both  houses,  attorney- 
general  under  Presidents  Harrison  and  Fillmore,  con- 
spicuous among  those  who  in  1861  tried  to  find  a  way 
other  than  war,  with  one  son  who  became  a  brigadier 
general  in  the  Union  army  and  one  a  major  general  on 
the  Confederate  side;  the  Lewis  children,  the  Duvals,  the 
Johnstons,  and  the  Halleys,  names  known  through  the 
whole  of  Kentucky's  history — and  learned  to  know  and 
to  love  the  world  of  nature. 

Those  early  years  at  Woodlake  were  years  of  joy  and 
freedom,  and  to  the  children  years  of  happy  memories. 
Beautiful  reference  to  those  years  has  been  made  in  the 
following  words: 

Memory  will  bring  to  different  hearts  pictures  of  her;  a  child, 
all  eyes  and  legs,  climbing  upon  her  father's  horse  to  ride  with  him 
over  the  farm,  seeking  and  giving  companionship  to  him  to  whom 
difference  of  age  made  no  difference;  a  girl,  with  eyes  that  seemed 
still  bigger  than  her  body,  and  long  legs  below  her  skirts,  who 
romped  with  boy  and  girl,  and  led  in  chase  and  in  study  at  the 
old  schoolhouse,  and  over  the  hills  around  the  pond  on  the  Wood- 
lake  farm. 

Already,  then,  there  grew  up  about  Madge  a  strange 
expectation  of  service.  An  idea  of  the  place  that  she 
occupied  in  the  family  when  a  little  girl,  is  conveyed  by  a 
question  put  by  Ballard  one  day  when  he  was  asked  to 
run  on  some  unaccustomed  errand.  '^What,"  he  said, 
"is  Msidge  dead r' 

In  1882,  when  she  was  ten  years  old,  her  father 
purchased  "Ashland,"  the  home  of  Henry  Clay,  and  the 
family  moved  to  Lexington  to  live. 


12  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Ashland  was  an  estate  of  about  six  hundred  acres 
bought  by  Mr.  Clay  in  1806  and  owned  since  then  by" 
the  family  except  during  the  years  1866  to  1882,  when  it 
was  owned  by  the  Kentucky  Agricultural  and  Mechanical 
College.  The  house  is  described  in  an  article  in  Country 
Life  in  America"  as 

a  spacious  two-story  brick  structure  with  one-story  wings  at  both 
ends,  which  project  out  beyond  the  main  portion  of  the  house, 
making,  as  it  were,  three  sides  of  a  long,  narrow  quadrangle- 
The  house  stands  on  a  slight  eminence  and  faces  toward  Lex- 
ington  

From  the  front  of  the  house  there  is  a  splendid  view  below 
the  sloping  lawn,  of  great  level  pastures  of  blue  grass,  and  of  the 
town  beyond.  The  driveway  sweeps  up  before  the  house  from  the 
turn-pike  to  the  northwest  in  graceful  curves,  and  is  still  marked  by 

some  of  the  trees  planted  there  a  century  ago In  the  view 

from  the  rear  of  the  house  one  can  note  the  hand  of  the  original 
landscape  gardener.  There  is  a  vista  formed  by  the  pines  and 
cedars  which,  in  a  straight  line,  border  both  sides  of  the  long  grass 
plot  of  several  acres  that  lies  directly  back  of  the  house.  This  is 
compassed  at  its  eastern  extremity  by  the  woodland  which  Henry 
Clay  made  into  a  park,  having  all  the  underbrush  trimmed  out. 

There  are  to  be  found  on  the  estate  a  great  variety  of  trees 
and  shrubs.  In  the  woods,  the  walnut,  chestnut,  oak,  cedar,  and 
ash  were  indigenous.  The  place  gets  its  name  from  the  number 
of  ash  trees.  On  the  lawns,  besides  cedars,  pines  and  cypress, 
there  are  lindens,  catalpas,  and  holly  trees. 

Harriet  Martineau  visited  at  Ashland  in  1835  and 
wrote  of  her  stay  there: 

....  Our  days  were  passed  in  great  luxury;  and  some  of  the 
hottest  of  them  very  idly.  The  house  was  in  the  midst  of 
grounds,  gay  with  verdure  and  flowers,  in  the  opening  month  of 
June;  and  our  favorite  seats  were  the  steps  of  the  hall,  and  chairs 

^  In  a  series  of  articles  by  O.  B.  Capen  on  "Country  Homes  of  Famous 
Americans,"  VI  (June,  1904),  158. 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  13 

under  the  trees.  From  thence  we  could  watch  the  play  of  the 
children  on  the  grass-plat,  and  some  of  the  drolleries  of  the  little 
negroes.  The  red  bird  and  blue  bird  flew  close  by;  and  the  black 
and  white  woodpecker  with  crimson  head,  tapped  at  all  the  tree- 
trunks,  as  if  we  were  no  interruption.  We  relished  the  table  fare, 
after  that  with  which  we  had  been  obliged  to  content  ourselves  on 
board  the  steam-boats.  The  tender  meat,  fresh  vegetables,  good 
claret  and  champagne,  with  the  daily  piles  of  strawberries  and  tow- 
ers of  ice-cream,  were  welcome  luxuries.  There  were  thirty-three 
horses  in  the  stables,  and  we  roved  about  the  neighbouring  country 
accordingly.  There  was  more  literature  at  hand  than  time  to 
profit  by  it.  Books  could  be  had  at  home;  but  not  the  woods 
of  Kentucky; — clear,  sunny  woods,  with  maple  and  sycamore 
springing  up  to  a  height  which  makes  man  feel  dwarfish.  The 
glades,  with  their  turf  so  clean,  every  fallen  leaf  having  been 
absorbed,  reminded  me  of  Ivanhoe.^ 

For  an  adequate  idea,  however,  of  the  beauty  and 
charm  of  that  exquisite  spot  one  must  go  to  the  poet. 
Among  the  friends  whom  she  cherished  was  Robert 
Burns  Wilson,  the  painter-poet.  One  afternoon  when  a 
party  of  young  people  were  delighting  in  the  scene,  a 
turkey  hen  with  her  young  brood  came  into  sight.  Some- 
one challenged  Mr.  Wilson  to  write  a  sonnet  and  make 
mention  of  the  turkey.  Madge  delighted  in  quoting 
the  lines  he  read  them  in  acceptance  of  the  gay  challenge: 

EVENING  AT  ASHLAND 

Long,  level  lines  of  liquid,  yellow  light 
Out-ebbed  from  the  horizon- touching  sun 
With  glory  bathe  all  things  they  rest  upon. 

Beyond  the  hedge  foreshadowings  of  the  night 

Pervade  the  solemn  wood-land,  where  the  bright, 
Gold  and  flame-fretted  columns  have  begun 
To  lose  their  lustre,  darkening  one  by  one, 

While  all  the  dewy  distance  fades  from  sight. 

»  Society  in  America,  I,  270  f. 


14  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Across  the  lawn  the  turkey  and  her  brood, 
A  straggling  group,  wend  to  some  restful  spot, 

Where  no  unfriendly  footsteps  may  intrude; 
The  grassy  courts  already  have  forgot 

The  tennis  player's  laughter,  and  the  air 

Holds  but  night's  love,  night's  joy  and  night's 
despair. 

She  loved  the  outdoor  sports.  Of  this  period  it  has 
been  said: 

And  then  grown  taller  with  soft  brown  hair,  she  came  to  a 
new  town  and  made  new  friends;  still  romped  and  played  and 
danced;  the  best  tennis  player,  the  most  tireless  dancer,  the  most 
daring  rider.  She  always  coveted  for  all  young  things  the  joys 
that  had  been  hers  in  those  radiant  childhood  days. 

She  entered  a  school  in  Lexington  known  as  "Mrs. 
Higgin's  School.''  There  the  pupils  had  been  going 
through  longer  sessions  of  better  organized  work  than 
she  had  had  in  the  little  country  school  at  Woodlake,  so 
that  she  entered  behind  her  grade.  But  as  one  of  her 
companions  of  those  happy  days  relates: 

It  was  a  very  short  time  before  she  caught  up  with  and  passed 
us  all  and  we  were  simply  running  to  keep  up  with  her.  I  remember 
that  she  wore  a  tight  little  fur  cap,  her  hair  hanging  loose,  her 
eyes  the  biggest  part  of  her  face.  There  were  five  of  us  that 
were  especially  intimate,  Lena,  Mattie,  Margaret,  Madge,  and  I.^ 
The  incident  connected  with  our  school  work  that  comes  to  us  all 
most  clearly  is  the  writing  of  a  composition,  "The  Story  of  a  Pair  of 
Old  Shoes. "  There  is  a  distinct  impression  of  the  beauty  of  the  ex- 
pression such  that  after  all  these  years  it  is  still  a  vivid  memory; 
and  the  narrative  was  so  appealing  that  every  one  in  the  classroom, 
including  the  teacher,  was  reduced  to  tears.     One  year  we  had  a 

^  Mrs.  John  H.  Flood,  Mrs.  Burris  Jenkins,  Mrs.  Leonard  G.  Cox,  Miss 
Emily  Barnes. 


THE  GARDEN  AT  ASHLAND 
Laid  out  by  Benjamin  Henry  Latrobe.  Architect  of  the  Capitol,  etc.,  1803-17 


MR.  CLAY  b  i'Alti      AT  ASHLAND 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  15 

competition  in  the  class  for  the  highest  place,  which  narrowed  down 
to  Lena,  who  was  older  than  Madge.  Lena  won,  and  she  says  that 
the  medal  then  won  is  one  of  her  most  prized  possessions.  Already 
Madge  was  interested  in  beautiful  and  exact  speech.  One  of  the 
group  says:  "I  can  see  her  now  when  she  said  to  me  once,  'Mat tie 
says  sometimes  when  she  means  some  time,  and  some  time  when 
she  means  sometimes.     It  sounds  very  queer  to  me.'" 

The  problem  of  a  college  education,  that  was  a 
real  problem  in  her  case,  was  decided  in  the  negative 
for  two  reasons:  There  was  the  question  of  her  health 
and  the  possible  effect  on  it  of  the  long  and  steady  strain, 
for  physical  education  was  not  so  well  provided  for  in 
those  days;  and  there  was  also  in  her  father's  mind  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  risk  of  separating  her  during 
four  impressionable  years  from  the  community  in  which 
she  expected  to  live  out  her  life.  He  felt  that  the  sacri- 
fice of  thoroughness,  discipline,  and  technical  equipment 
might  better  be  made  than  risk  the  severing  of  ties, 
the  adjustment  to  other  habits  and  attitudes,  the  breaking 
of  the  bonds  of  which  he  wanted  her  Hfe  to  continue 
to  be  a  part. 

And  so  she  went  for  a  happy  year  to  Miss  Porter's 
school  at  Farmington,  Connecticut  (1889-90),  and  after- 
ward (1890-94)  pursued  courses  at  the  State  College, 
now  the  University  of  Kentucky,  which  had  for  ten 
years  admitted  girls. 

To  the  impressions  left  on  those  who  knew  her  during 
those  years  at  the  State  College,  the  following  letter 
will  testify,  written  to  her  by  the  aged  president  emeritus 
of  that  institution  when  he  had  learned  of  the  sudden 
blow  that  had  fallen  upon  her,  but  had  not  learned  that 
it  was  a  fatal  stroke. 


i6  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

My  dear  Friend: 

I  have  learned  today  with  much  regret  and  a  sincere  grief 
that  you  have  suffered  a  stroke  of  paralysis.  Having  been  stricken 
some  eight  months  ago,  I  am  the  more  sympathetic.  I  am  hoping, 
however,  that  you  will  fully  recover.  You  have  youth  and  that 
is  the  great  restorative.  Were  I  thirty  or  forty  years  younger  I 
would  feel  quite  assured  as  to  my  condition. 

I  pray  that  you  may  be  spared  to  a  long  and  useful  and  an 

honorable  life  upon  the  earth.     You  have  ability  far  beyond  that 

of  the  average  man  or  woman,  brilliancy  of  intellect,  a  carefully 

trained  and  well-balanced  mind — one  that  the  state  and  nation 

can  ill  afford  to  lose  at  this  crisis  in  our  history.    It  gives  me  a 

degree  of  pleasure  and  of  a  pride  that  I  had  some  part,  however 

slight,  in  your  education  and  that  I  speak  from  information  gained 

at  first  hand. 

With  sincere  admiration  and  affection, 

James  K.  Patterson 

"Ashland"  had,  of  course,  a  double  attraction. 
There  were  the  associations  with  Mr.  Clay,  making  it 
one  of  the  "sights"  to  be  visited  by  any  foreign  person 
of  distinction  travehng  in  the  United  States.  And  in 
later  times  delightful  occasions  often  grew  out  of 
such  visits,  as  when  Lord  Bryce  came  with  a  party 
of  friends  when  he  was  collecting  the  facts  on  which 
his  study  of  the  American  commonwealth  was  based. 
Major  McDowell  delighted  to  exercise  a  kind  of  public 
hospitality,  and  his  charm  and  graciousness  in  those 
days  were  proverbial  as  was  her  kindness.  After  long 
years,  one  who  enjoyed  the  kindly  hospitality  of  that 
gracious  home  delights  to  recall  its  charm. 

General  Hugh  L.  Scott,  for  example,  from  his  retire- 
ment in  Princeton  writes: 

It  is  with  much  sorrow  I  have  seen  an  account  in  the  newspaper 
of  the  loss  you  have  sustained  in  the  death  of  your  wife.    I  remem- 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTU  17 

ber  her  so  well  in  her  father's  house  and  her  kindness  to  me  in  the 
Spanish  War.  That  was  such  a  delightful  house — of  all  the  many 
hosts  I  have  seen  since,  Major  McDowell  stands  out  pre-eminent 
in  courtly  grace.  I  was  in  Lexington  last  spring  for  one  night 
looking  up  my  old  friends.  You  were  the  first  I  asked  for  and  was 
sorry  to  be  told  that  you  and  Mrs.  Breckinridge  were  in  New  York. 
I  feel  nearer  to  you  than  to  anyone  else  in  Lexington  because 
of  the  fact  that  three  generations  of  our  people  have  been 
friends 

Her  intimacy  with  her  father  had  been  very  dose. 
In  the  early  days  at  Woodlake,  he  had  delighted  to  take 
her  about  with  him,  holding  her  in  front  on  the  saddle 
as  he  rode  over  the  farm.  Undoubtedly  much  of  her  sense 
for  words  and  love  of  correct  speech  came  from  those 
"twilight  spelling  lessons,"  as  she  called  them,  when 
he  would  challenge  her  to  describe  what  she  saw  and  spell 
the  words  she  used.  He  was  a  man  of  great  personal 
beauty  and  charm,  a  man  of  large  affairs  and  of  public 
spirit.  In  1897,  for  example,  when  it  was  necessary  to 
find  a  location  to  which  the  fever-stricken  soldiers  might 
be  moved  from  Chickamauga,  he  underwrote  the  neces- 
sary obligations,  so  that  the  difficulty  might  be  quickly 
met  and  the  transfer  promptly  made. 

When  Major  McDowell  died,  November  18,  1899,  it 
was  written  of  him: 

Great,  however,  as  has  been  his  aid  to  Lexington  in  material 
ways,  they  are  in  fact  but  the  smaller  part  of  the  gain  his  residence 
has  brought.  His  influence  has  always  been  for  truth,  honor  and 
purity,  for  all  included  in  the  olden  meaning  of  the  much  abused 
word  "gentleman."  Without  fear  and  without  reproach,  with 
infinite  gentleness  to  every  human  being,  with  naught  to  conceal, 
never  knowing  a  craven  thought,  never  doing  a  tnean  action, 
hating  all  shams,  his  influence  for  the  highest  standard  of 
civic  duty  and  the  purest  type  of  private  life  cannot  be  estimated. 


i8  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Not  only  was  he  honest  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  but  was 
in  the  highest  sense  ''honest  minded" — he  could  not  under  any 
circumstances  have  been  dishonest  even  in  his  most  secret  thoughts. 

He  was  never  too  busy,  no  matter  how  important  his  own 
affairs  might  be,  to  give  a  courteous  greeting  and  patient  hearing 
to  anyone  who  went  to  him  for  advice.  Of  his  time,  of  his  means, 
of  his  experience  and  of  his  wisdom  he  was  prodigal,  giving  of 
such  whenever  he  had  an  opportunity  to  aid  man  or  woman. 

The  full  equal  of  the  highest,  he  was  as  considerate  of  the 
lowest  as  of  the  highest ;  he  felt  himself  the  superior  of  no  human 
being  who  was  striving  to  do  honest  work.  The  friend  of  the  most 
prominent,  he  counted  as  equal  friends  the  humblest,  and  to  each 
was  equally  frank,  courteous  and  gentle.  In  every  relation  of 
life  he  bore  himself  so  that  he  won  the  friendship  of  the  manly 
and  the  respect,  trust  and  admiration  of  all  who  came  in  contact 
with  him.  Whatever  subject  he  touched  he  became  master  of; 
whether  it  was  the  duties  connected  with  the  commissionership 
of  the  asylum,  or  the  breeding  of  horses,  or  the  running  of  a  railroad, 
whatever  it  was,  he  learned  all  there  was  to  learn,  that  he  might 
best  perform  the  duties  of  his  daily  life.  Taken  all  in  all,  he  was 
a  fair  example  of  the  finest  type  of  American,  Kentuckian,  gentle- 
man.^ 

Mrs.  McDowell,  Anne  Clay  McDowell,  who  died 
on  February  3,  191 7,  within  a  fortnight  of  her  eightieth 
birthday,  was  a  very  gentle  and  lovely  person.  She  had 
been  early  orphaned.  Her  mother  died  when  she  was  three, 
and  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista  in  which  her  father.  Colonel 
Henry  Clay,  Jr.,  was  killed  was  in  her  eleventh  year.  Her 
two  brothers,  Henry  and  Thomas,  fought  on  opposite  sides 
in  the  Civil  War  and  lost  their  lives,  and  the  death  of  her 
youngest  child,  Ballard,  at  the  age  of  four,  had  stricken 
her.  But  she  was  a  generous  and  noble  mother  and  friend 
and  neighbor.  Within  a  week  of  her  death,  in  fact,  she 
was  concerned  for  the  relief  of  distress,  and  when,  for 

"  Lexington  Herald,  November  20,  1899. 


a 
K 


e  ° 


fa    o 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  19 

example,  the  gas  on  which  many  depended  for  heat 
failed,  she  planned  in  her  feebleness  to  supply  a  needy 
household  with  fuel.  For  many  years  her  health  was 
frail,  and  the  care  of  her  and  thought  for  her  were  among 
the  constant  preoccupations  of  the  daughter. 

But  beside  the  semipublic  life  that  residence  at 
Ashland  involved,  there  were  also  charming  and  abiding 
friendships  with  school  friends  who  came  to  visit,  with 
the  poet  and  artist  who  delighted  in  the  beauties  of  Ash- 
land and  in  the  gentle  atmosphere  of  kindliness  and 
appreciation.  Among  the  girl  friends  there  might  be 
named  Marion  Houston,  from  New  York,  now  Mrs. 
Datus  Smith  of  Pasadena — they  heard  together  Mr. 
Devine  lecture  on  "Charity  Organization  Methods"  in 
the  early  days  of  the  New  York  School  of  Philanthropy's 
summer  session;  Grace  Otis,  from  a  prominent  Chicago 
family,  now  Mrs.  William  Sage,  who  later  helped  her 
beg  for  Lincoln  School  when  she  went  on  the  trail  of 
ex-Kentuckians  in  its  behalf  and  got  $1,000  from  Mr. 
Robert  Lincoln;  AHce  Dudley,  daughter  of  the  Bishop 
of  Kentucky,  who  later  married  Will  and  died  in  1911; 
Annie  Fitzhugh,  the  poet,  who  had  not  yet  married 
William  McLean,  the  painter  and  sculptor;  Katherine 
Pettit,  who  later  organized  the  Hindman  and  Pine 
Mountain  Settlement  Schools;  the  gifted  Dangerfield 
sisters,  Elizabeth  who  is  now  caretaker  for  the  "super- 
horse"  Man-of-War,  and  Henderson  who  is  just  about 
to  publish  an  authorized  translation  of  Rostand's  works, 
the  result  of  many  years  of  scholarly  work.  Among 
the  men  were  Mr.  Wilson,  who  was  then  chiefly  a  poet 
and  had  not  yet  begun  to  express  himself  in  color  as  well; 
John  Fox,  Jr.,  who  was  trying  his  hand  at  stories,  never 


20  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

dreaming  that  a  book  of  his  could  outsell  any  one  by 
his  master,  James  Lane  Allen.  There  were,  besides,  the 
innumerable  "kin''  as  they  say  in  Kentucky — the 
Ballards  and  Crittendens  and  Duvals  growing  older 
with  her,  and  the  beautiful  Susie  Hart,  from  Woodford, 
now  Mrs.  Johnson  Camden,  whose  daughter,  Tevis,  later 
shared  the  struggle  with  Governor  McCreary  and  Gover- 
nor Stanley,  when  the  tuberculosis  fight  seemed  to  have 


been  won,^  and  the  Shelbys,  descendants  of  the  old 
governor,  whose  beautiful  daughter  Susanna  had  mar- 
ried Dr.  Ephraim  McDowell — their  name,  in  fact,  was 
legion. 

These  years  of  girlhood  were  very  happy  years. 
She  loved  the  outdoors,  the  trees,  the  far  stretches,  she 
loved  the  memories  of  the  childhood  at  Woodlake,  but 
she  loved  books,^  too,  and  craved  the  organized  quest  for 

»  See  below,  chap,  vii,  p.  141. 

2  Her  bookplate  is  so  charmingly  associated  with  her  past  that  it  is  repro- 
duced. It  was  designed  by  a  distinguished  Chicago  architect.  The  motto  on 
the  dial  is  Semper  varians  in  veritak  constans. 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  2i 

information  and  instruction,  and,  for  this,  the  woman^s 
club  served  as  the  channel. 

Like  all  catholic  and  democratic  spirits,  her  associa- 
tions were  free  from  the  limitations  so  often  imposed 
by  difference  in  age  as  they  were  able  to  overcome  the 
usual  barriers  of  sex,  color,  or  differing  economic  oppor- 
tunity. And  in  her  beloved  friend  and  kinswoman, 
Mrs.  Ida  Withers  Harrison,  to  whom  she  was  related  in 
closest  bonds  of  affection  throughout  her  life,  she  found 
sympathy  and  companionship.  In  this  understanding 
with  her  and  Mrs.  Harrison  in  those  days  was  perhaps 
especially  associated  Mrs.  Mary  Gratz  Morton,  to  whom 
she  was  related  by  ties  of  marriage  and  intimate  family 
association.  She  delighted  in  Mrs.  Morton's  beauty  and 
wit  and  to  an  extent  was  influenced  by  Mrs.  Morton's 
guidance  in  certain  pubHc  questions. 

"Soon  after  her  return  from  the  East,  she  joined  the 
Fortnightly  Club,"  Mrs.  Harrison  writes,  "and  at  once 
became  a  leading  spirit  in  its  councils  and  programs. 
The  Fortnightly  was  the  oldest  club  in  Lexington  and  one 
of  the  oldest  in  the  state.  It  was  purely  a  study  club  and 
sometimes  undertook  very  ambitious  lines  of  study. "  She 
and  Mrs.  Harrison  constituted  the  Program  Committee  for 
the  years  1894-95,  when  the  club  wanted  to  study  German 
literature.  The  Committee  worked  over  the  plans  and 
submitted  so  ambitious  a  program,  including  philosophy 
as  well  as  pure  literature,  that  the  club,  somewhat  aghast, 
decided  they  could  do  the  work  if  they  worked  two  years 
instead  of  one  year  on  it.  To  the  jibes  of  a  local  paper 
that  Kant  and  Hegel  and  Fichte  exceeded  the  range  of  a 
woman's  club  ability  they  retorted  that  "  'twas  better  to 
have  tried  and  failed  than  never  to  have  tried  at  all. " 


22  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

She  also  gave  herself  much  practice  in  composition 
during  these  years  between  her  return  from  school  and 
lier  marriage.  Her  part  in  the  preparation  of  the  program 
for  the  club  had  led  her  into  the  problem  of  organizing 
literary  materials.  She  had  a  great  love  for  beautiful 
language  used  with  exactness,  and  she  had  a  rare  sense 
of  the  value  of  discipline.  An  article  entitled  ^'Personal 
Reminiscences  of  Henry  Clay,"  published  in  the  Century 
for  September,  1895,'  shows  a  fine  skill  in  the  selection 
of  material,  in  objective  use  of  facts,  in  which  she  had 
naturally  a  personal  interest,  and  in  vivid  statement. 
Some  of  her  manuscripts  of  this  period  were  not  published, 
but  were  laid  aside  and  served  as  the  basis  for  later 
speeches  or  reports.  One  in  particular,  entitled  the 
"Passing  of  the  Home,"  written  first  perhaps  in  1894, 
contained  the  thesis  which  she  later  supported  with  such 
convincing  force  in  her  paper  entitled  '^A  Mother's 
Sphere,"  prepared  for  the  Political  Science  Committee 
of  the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs. 

Among  the  older  companions  of  those  days  in  whose 
society  she  always  delighted  was  her  aunt,  Magdalen, 
for  whom  she  was  named,  who  made  her  home  for  a 
great  part  of  the  time  at  Ashland.  "Aunt  Mag,"  as 
she  was  familiarly  called  by  the  younger  members  of 
the  family  of  all  degrees  of  kinship,  was  also  interested  in 
all  kinds  of  things.  She  loved  beauty  in  all  things,  but 
especially  she  was  interested  in  architecture  and  painting. 
Her  health  was  feeble  and,  born  in  1829,  she  was  no  longer 
young.  But  she  delighted  in  all  the  exquisite  ways  and  all 
the  flashing  eagerness  of  her  young  niece.  It  was  lovingly 
written  of  her  when  she  died  December  27,  1918: 

'  L,  765. 


MISS  MAGDALEN  HARVEY  McDOWELL,  "AUNT  MAG 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  23 

During  her  long  life  she  gave  evidence  of  much  genius,  of  many 
talents.  In  a  day  when  it  was  thought  unusual,  and  by  many 
improper,  for  a  woman  to  play  any  part  outside  the  routine  of 
the  drawing-room  and  the  kitchen,  she  blazed  the  way  for  women's 
activities.  When  women  were  not  admitted  to  the  studios  of 
the  artists  who  taught,  she  learned  to  paint,  and  her  pictures  were 
thought  worthy  to  hang  even  with  the  products  of  the  masters 
of  the  craft.  In  a  time  when  it  was  not  thought  possible  that  a 
woman  might  learn  the  intricacies  of  architecture,  she  designed 
buildings,  small  and  large,  private  and  public,  that  won  the 
commendation  of  the  artistic  and  the  trained. 

There  was  no  question  of  art,  there  was  no  principle  of  politics 
or  of  statecraft  that  was  not  of  interest  to  her,  nor  on  which  she 
did  not  have  a  definite  and  firm  conviction.  There  was  never  a 
time  throughout  her  long  life  that  she  did  not  give  eager  interest 
and  glad  aid  to  anyone  who  appealed  to  her  for  sympathy  or 
assistance.  But  through  her  long  life,  spanning  almost  the  history 
of  Kentucky,  full  of  activity,  covering  all  the  gamut  of  human 
achievement,  she  never  found  time  to  say,  or  even  think,  if  one 
may  judge  thought  by  words  and  deeds,  an  unkind  or  untruthful 
thing.  If  all  she  ever  said  of  kindred  or  friend  or  acquaintance, 
even  of  enemy  of  her  country,  for  she  had  no  enemy  of  her  own, 
were  repeated  to  the  one  of  whom  it  was  said  it  would  not  cause 
resentment.  With  the  utter  frankness  of  absolute  fearlessness 
she  said  to  each  and  to  every  one  what  she  thought.  But  as  her 
nature  was  free  from  malice,  from  envy,  from  uncharitableness, 
so  was  her  speech  free  from  rancor  and  her  tongue  from  sting. 
As  there  were  stored  in  her  heart  the  experiences  of  four  wars, 
the  greatest  of  which  she  lived,  as  she  often  expressed  the  passionate 
desire  to  do,  to  see  ended  by  the  victory  of  civilization,  so  was 
there  stored  in  her  heart  the  knowledge  gained  not  through  experi- 
ence but  given  by  instinct  and  heredity,  that  one  carries  in  one's 
heart  the  measure  of  one's  happiness  by  service  to  others. 

In  the  midst  of  these  delights  and  companionships, 
illness  fell  upon  Madge.  It  was  said  to  be  the  result  of 
an  accident.    Whatever  the  origin,  a  radical  change  in 


24  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

her  habits  of  life  had  to  be  made,  and  a  life  subjected 
to  physical  restraints  had  to  be  anticipated.  The  change 
has  been  described: 

There  was  never  a  suggestion  of  loss.  Memory  shows  tennis 
parties  where  others  played  and  she  looked  on;  dancing  parties 
where  she  was  hostess,  but  did  not  dance;  and  riding  parties 
and  rabbit  hunts  where  she  drove  and  others  rode.  But  none 
might  know  that  she  would  rather  ride  than  drive,  and  rather 
dance  than  sit,  and  rather  play  tennis  than  serve  tea. 

She  made  her  life  full.  There  were  things  to  learn  and  books 
to  read  and  older  people  to  amuse.  And  the  pictures  of  those  days 
are  full  of  duties  done,  full  of  pleasures  given  and  shared,  the  days 
of  girlhood,  and  joyous  house  parties,  when  the  home  and  the 
woods  where  the  long  shadows  fell  rang  with  laughter  and  with 
song;  with  the  tinkle  of  guitar  and  the  music  of  the  voice.  And 
in  the  house  parties,  among  the  guests  that  came,  there  were 
many  kinds — the  poet  and  the  artist  and  the  story  teller;  some  of 
wealth,  some  without  wealth;  some  whose  people  had  won  posi- 
tipn,  some  who  made  their  own  position.  It  was  not  by  rank, 
nor  wealth,  nor  by  reason  of  what  others  might  have  done  that 
she  chose  her  friends. 

On  November  17,  1898,  she  married  Desha  Breckin- 
ridge, a  young  lawyer  who  had  devoted  his  efforts  for 
the  past  four  years  to  the  political  support  of  his  brilliant 
father,  W.  C.  P.  Breckinridge,  member  of  Congress 
1885-94  and  leader  in  the  ''Sound-Money  Campaign" 
of  1896,  and  had,  as  the  result  of  this  activity,  in  1897 
abandoned  the  legal  profession  for  which  he  had  prepared 
himself  and  become  the  editor  and  owner  of  the  Lexington 
Herald.  Before  her  marriage  she  became  interested  in 
the  different  kinds  of  service  the  Herald  might  render. 
She  corresponded  with  the  various  publishing  houses 
in  the  effort  to  obtain  books  for  review  •  purposes ;  she 
wrote  reviews  or  secured  reviews  from  others;  and  dur- 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH 


25 


ing  all  these  years  the  "Book  Notes''  of  the  Herald  could 
have  stood  comparison  with  similar  features  in  the  metro- 
politan journals/ 

She  brought  to  the  paper  an  interest  in  beautiful 
language,  in  fine  composition,  and  in  art  in  every  field. 
She  was  keen  that  it  should  recognize  the  claim  of  all  to 


have  beauty  a  part  of  daily  living.  For  a  time  a  charming 
Herald  sounding  the  world's  news  was  the  emblem  at 
the  head  of  the  paper,  designed  at  her  suggestion  by 
Aunt  Mag.  The  Boy  later  gave  way  to  the  Bugle  calling 
to  the  daily  interest. 

*  Since  about  1906-7  these  columns  have  represented  largely  the  critical 
judgment  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Dangerfield. 


26  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Quite  incidentally  the  paper  testified  to  these  varied 
interests.  The  death  of  an  exquisitely  modest  and  beauty- 
loving  person  evokes  an  editorial'  that 
is  full  not  only  of  appreciation,  but  of 
accurate  knowledge  concerning  unsus- 
pected resources  of  the  community  in 
that  field — so  lovely  an  essay  on  the 
"Passing  of  an  Artist"  that  it  is  repro- 
duced to  show  the  breadth  of  her 
interest  and  delicacy  of  her  touch. 

The  death  of  Miss  Bessie  Frazer  removes  from  Lexington  one 
more  of  those  persons  whose  charm  of  intellect  and  of  personality 
gave  to  the  society  of  this  section  the  reputation  which  for  so  long 
it  justly  enjoyed.  Brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  art  and  of 
literary  culture,  Miss  Frazer  was  of  those  who,  like  the  beloved 
biographer  of  Prue  and  /,  have  "Italy  in  their  hearts."  Spending 
most  of  her  life  quietly  in  her  quaint  and  charming  little  home  in 
the  Blue  Grass,  she  knew  more  of  Italy,  of  Europe  and  her  treasures 
than  the  hundreds  of  tourists  who  in  the  flesh  unseeingly  tread 
those  sacred  soils  each  year.  She  was  on  intimate  terms  with  all 
the  interesting  people  of  fiction,  and  she  gavje  the  same  welcome 
to  the  masterpieces  of  yesterday  or  today  that  she  had  given  in  her 
youth  to  the  masterpieces  of  the  past.  Her  conversation  was  rich 
with  allusion  springing  from  this  intimate  knowledge  of  the  world 
of  books,  and  was  lightened  always  with  a  sense  of  humor  that  was 
perhaps  the  chief  source  of  what  seemed  her  gift  of  perpetual 
youth.  But  even  better  than  the  culture  of  mind  which  Miss 
Frazer  possessed,  was  what  has  been  called  "the  culture  of  the 
heart,"  a  consideration  for  others,  a  generous  appreciation  of  talent 
in  others,  a  forgetfulness  of  self,  a  freshness  and  gentleness,  a  loveli- 
ness of  nature  that  it  is  impossible  to  describe.  The  daughter  of 
an  artist  whose  memory  is  still  green,  whose  reputation  cannot 
fade  in  the  many  Kentucky  homes  where  his  works  hang,  Miss 
Frazer  was  herself  an  artist  of  no  mean  ability.     She  was  taught 

^  Lexington  Herald,  April  6,  191  o. 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  27 

by  her  father,  but  her  bent  took  a  different  turn  from  his  and  her 
best  work,  was  as  an  animal  painter. 

The  Frazer  home,  with  the  old  portraits  on  the  walls  inside  that 
shine  with  the  youth  of  genius,  and  the  clustering  shrubs  and  old- 
fashioned  flowers  outside  that  each  year  clothe  it  with  spring,  is  a 
connecting  link  of  what  seems  to  us  the  prosaic  Lexington  of  today, 
with  the  Lexington  of  the  past,  rich  with  the  memories  of  great 
personalities. 

Oliver  Frazer  was  the  pupil  and  friend  of  Matthew  Jouett, 
Kentucky's  first  artist;  his  wife  was  Mrs.  Jouett's  niece,  and  the 
close  intimacy  and  affection  between  the  families  is  attested  by 
the  products  of  Jouett's  brush  that  hang  side  by  side  with  those  of 
his  most  brilliant  pupil.  Oliver  Frazer's  artistic  training,  begun 
in  Jouett's  studio,  was  continued  abroad.  Kentucky  was  fortunate 
to  have  in  the  earlier  days  two  such  portrait  painters  as  Jouett  and 
Frazer  who  succeeded  him,  leaving  some  portraits  of  the  generation 
which  Jouett  painted  and  more  of  the  succeeding  generation. 
Jouett,  for  instance,  had  painted  a  portrait  of  Henry  Clay  in  his 
young  manhood;  Frazer  painted  a  most  charming  portrait  of  Mrs. 
Clay  as  an  old  lady,  a  portrait  of  Henry  Clay  and  of  his  wife.  Some 
of  his  best-known  portraits  are  the  ones  of  the  brilliant  young  states- 
man and  orator,  Richard  Menefee,  who  married  Jouett's  daughter, 
of  General  Price,  Mr.  Matthew  T.  Scott,  Mrs.  Susan  Shelby  Fish- 
back,  an  exquisite  child's  portrait  of  the  present  Dr.  Benjamin 
Warfield  of  Princeton,  and  a  group  picture  of  the  artist's  wife  with 
two  of  her  baby  children — one  of  them  the  subject  of  these  inade- 
quate words.  Hanging  with  this  group  in  the  Frazer  home  are 
three  portraits  of  Oliver  Frazer — one  by  himself,  rarely  beautiful 
and  interesting,  one  by  a  later  artist  admirer,  Benoni  Irwin,  almost 
as  charming,  and  one  by  Healy. 

The  latter  portrait,  with  one  of  Healy  by  himself,  painted  for 
Frazer,  are  the  mementos  of  a  very  delightful  friendship  between 
these  two  artists.  Healy  was  sent  to  this  country  by  Louis 
Philippe,  commissioned  to  paint  for  him  portraits  of  General 
Jackson  and  of  Mr.  Clay.  In  Lexington  Healy  found  a  most 
delightful  and  congenial  society,  and  most  delightful  and  most 
brilliant  of  all  he  found  the  artist  Oliver  Frazer.    As  a  mark  of 


28  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

admiration  and  affection  he  painted  the  portrait  of  Frazer  above 
referred  to.  A  certain  group  of  men,  many  of  whose  names  now 
live  in  history,  were  wont  to  gather  on  Sunday  afternoon  at  the 
home  of  Major  Madison  Johnson.  It  is  recounted  that  on  a  particu- 
lar Sabbath,  Healy  failed  to  put  in  his  appearance.  The  company 
adjourned  finally  to  unearth  the  trouble.  They  found  Healy 
locked  in  his  studio,  refusing  to  come  out  even  for  the  companion- 
ship which  he  found  so  congenial  until  he  had  finished  a  portrait 
of  himself  which  he  was  painting  for  his  friend  Oliver  Frazer. 

The  little  household,  graced  and  brightened  by  cheerful 
memories  of  the  past  from  which  the  soul  of  another  artist  has  just 
gone  out,  leaving  its  members  sorrowing,  cannot  remain  always 
in  the  shadow  because  the  very  nature  of  her  who  is  gone  was  such 
that  the  memory  of  her  brings  a  sense  always  of  youth  and  of 
cheerfulness. 

This  experience  with  the  books  and  papers  in  general 
meant  a  familiarity  with  the  literature  of  a  great  number 
of  fields,  a  contact  with  the  widest  range  of  problems 
touching  the  community  life,  and  the  early  habit  of 
formulating  these  problems  so  as  to  meet  the  interest 
and  intelligence  of  the  average  reader.  Her  marriage 
made  permanent  and  public  an  association  that  was 
already  a  companionship  in  effort,  in  service,  and  in 
expression. 

A  word  more  may  be  added  to  these  meager  references 
to  her  earlier  life,  in  order  to  speak  of  her  relation  to 
certain  church  activities. 

The  family  were  members  of  the  Episcopal  church, 
and  not  long  after  Major  McDowell  moved  to  Lexington 
both  Nettie  and  Madge  joined  a  group  of  young  girls 
in  the  church  who  had  been  organized  for  ''Christian 
work"  by  one  of  the  ladies  devoted  to  the  parish  and 
the  church,  Mrs.  Maria  Hunt  Dudley.  Nettie  became 
president  of  the  club,   and  the  club  at  first  provided 


STAIRW  AY  AT  ASHLAND 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Henry  (Lucretia  Hart)  Clay.    Portrait  by  Oliver  Frazer 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  29 

support  and  education  for  a  little  girl,  and,  when  she 
died,  took  over  the  permanent  support  of  a  cot  in  the 
hospital,  then  the  Protestant  Infirmary,  now  the  Good 
Samaritan  Hospital.  Nettie  was  married  on  April  19, 
1892,  and  moved  to  Louisville,  and  the  Gleaners  met 
less  regularly  and  allowed  their  other  activities  to  lapse, 
maintaining  always  their  support  of  the  cot. 

In  the  summer  after  Madge's  marriage,  1899,  how- 
ever. Professor  Penniman,  of  Berea  College,  organized 
a  horseback  trip  into  certain  mountain  sections,  and 
Madge  delighted  in  the  opportunity  of  learning,  if  only 
slightly,  to  know  her  "contemporary  ancestors"  at  first 
hand.  Among  other  places  she  visited  were  Beattyville, 
the  county  seat  of  Lee  County,  which  is  on  one  side  of 
Kentucky  River,  and  Proctor,  on  the  other  side — "yon 
side,"  as  the  neighbors  say.  The  diocese  of  Kentucky, 
not  then  divided,  had  erected  in  Beattyville  a  pretty 
little  stone  church  and  a  little  schoolhouse;  and  in  Proctor 
an  old  building  with  long  porches  and  a  great  yard  that 
had  been  known  as  "Hiram  McGuire's  Farm"  when 
there  was  horseback  travel  or  boat  travel  that  way 
had  been  purchased  by  Mrs.  Frank  Hunt,  a  devout 
member  of  the  church,  given  to  the  diocese,  and  trans- 
formed into  a  mission-house  for  church  uses. 

Madge  saw  at  once  the  possibility  of  developing  there 
a  social  settlement  for  the  service  of  the  people  of  the 
whole  region.  She  had  seen  that  there  were  not  only 
physical  resources  in  the  building,  but  spiritual  and 
human  resources  as  well,  in  that  Miss  LiUie  Mahan, 
who  had  been  county  superintendent  of  schools,  had 
already  given  up  her  teaching  to  devote  herself  to  the 
work  of  the  church  under  the  Board  of  Missions. 


30  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

On  her  return  then  she  took  steps  to  revive  the  Glean- 
ers. Its  membership  was  enlarged  to  take  in  members 
from  other  denominations,  and  she  proposed  that  they 
undertake  to  maintain  settlement  activities  at  Proctor 
during  the  summer  months.  Mrs.  Henderson  Danger- 
field  Norman,  who,  with  her  sister  Elizabeth,  M^as  in  the 
work  in  those  early  days  and  through  the  years  has 
maintained  her  interest,  writes  of  Madge's  part  in  the 
work  as  follows: 

....  The  other  day  I  went  up  to  Beattyville  for  a  few  days' 
visit,  and  on  the  train  I  met  an  old  Lee  County  friend  who,  talking 
in  a  reminiscent  vein,  said  to  me:  "Do  you  remember  the  summer 
the  Gleaners  first  came  to  Lee  County?  It  sometimes  seemed 
to  me  every  good  thing  in  the  County  started  that  summer,  or 
runs  back  to  it  somehow  or  another." 

It  set  me  thinking  of  Madge's  share  in  it,  and  you  may  like 
to  have  the  gist  of  that  story 

After  that  mountain  trip  of  Madge's  she  reanimated  the 
Gleaners  and  organized  them  for  mountain  work,  keeping  up 
nevertheless  the  hospital  work. 

You  have  told  me  how  careful  you  want  to  be  not  to  claim 
for  Madge  any  work  that  really  belonged  to  another,  knowing 
how  literally  she  "loved  herself  last"  and  remembered  the  work 
of  other  people  when  she  had  forgotten  her  own.  Certainly  I 
don't  mean  to  belittle  the  fact  that  valuable  work  had  been  done 
for  the  neighbors  in  Lee  County  before,  as  there  has  been  since, 
but  nobody  who  has  shared  the  Gleaners'  work  since  the  spring 
of  1899  doubts  that  Madge's  was  the  torch  that  kindled  ours. 

The  Gleaners  were  reorganized,  and  Madge  became  president 
in  1899.  The  membership  which  had  been  girls  of  Christ  Church 
parish  was  enlarged  to  admit  Christian  women  of  all  denomi- 
nations (though  as  a  matter  of  fact  its  personnel  was  not  greatly 
changed  and  its  work  was  under  the  control  of  the  Bishop  and 

rector  as  before) Madge  kindled  and  informed  her  group; 

she  appointed  her  committees  wisely;  Clara  Dudley,  now  Mrs. 


HER  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH  31 

Livingston,  was  chairman  of  one  of  them  and  carried  on  her 
share  of  the  work  with  the  same  spirit  that  had  prompted  her 
grandmother  Mrs.  Hunt  to  buy  the  old  roadside  tavern  and  to 
give  it  to  the  church  for  a  Mission  House,  and  had  made  her 
mother,  Mrs.  Dudley,  organize  the  Gleaners. 

Madge,  with  her  brother  Will's  help,  got  up  an  excursion  on  the 
Lexington  and  Eastern  Railroad,  of  which  he  was  general  manager, 
to  take  the  Gleaners  to  Beattyville  to  "view  the  prospect  o'er." 
(We  felt  a  little  like  Moses,  because  we  never  reached  our  kingdom- 
to-come,  but  stayed  on  the  ferry  boat,  fast  on  a  sandbar  in  the 
river,  and  gazed  longingly  at  the  Mission  House  on  its  hill  in  Proctor, 
till  train  time;  but  the  enthusiasm  was  created  nevertheless.) 

The  following  summer,  1900,  a  band  of  volunteer  workers  from 
the  Gleaners  stayed  at  the  Ninaweb  Inn  in  Beattyville  for  a  month 
and  opened  a  kindergarten  and  conducted  other  classes  and  clubs 
at  the  schoolhouse  in  Proctor,  crossing  and  recrossing  the  river 
every  day.  A  difficult  beginning,  and  a  small  one,  but  the  whole 
countryside  responded  with  grateful  co-operation  that  set  at 
naught  in  the  minds  of  those  who  helped  that  summer  the  slander 
that  persistently  declares  that  the  mountain  people  are  unrespon- 
sive or  unappreciative.  It  was  interesting  to  discover  during  that 
first  month  that  already  the  church  workers  there  knew  one 
unfailing  friend,  quoted  one  Bluegrass  authority,  and  her  name 
was  Madge  McDowell  Breckinridge. 

By  the  summer  of  1901  the  Mission  House  had  been  so  far 
repaired  and  set  in  order  that  the  workers  could  stay  on  the  Proctor 
side  and  live  in  the  Mission  House.  That  year  we  had  about  a 
hundred  guests  a  day;  the  kindergarten  in  that  isolated  com- 
munity had  an  average  attendance  of  89;  we  had  cooking  and 
sewing  classes,  classes  in  basketry,  clubs  for  the  boys  and  girls 
and  community  gatherings  in  the  evenings,  which  the  neighbors 
elected  to  call  "singings."  And  the  heart  of  it  all  was  the  chapel, 
once  the  dining-room  of  the  tavern.  There  family  prayers  were 
held  daily,  with  morning  service  if  the  rector,  Mr.  Patterson, 
who  is  guardian  angel  to  all  the  county,  could  be  with  us. 

That  was  twenty  years  ago.  Miss  Lillie  Mahan  has  long  lived 
in  Florida;  this  spring  the  old  Mission  House  was  sold,  and  the 


32  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

work  has  changed  in  character;  but,  since  Madge  was  president 
of  the  Gleaners  until  now,  some  form  of  community  service  has 
been  done  in  Lee  County  through  this  agency,  which  she  did  not 
create  but  which  she  did  reanimate  and  direct  into  this  channel. 
Almost  every  summer  from  that  day  to  this  there  has  been  some 
intensive  church  work  for  the  community  in  Lee  County  done 
by  the  Gleaners  from  Lexington,  working  with  the  church  people 
and  other  Christian  friends  of  the  vicinage.  Every  year  there  has 
been  a  little  extension;  a  day  has  been  spent  at  a  dozen  different 
points  in  the  county,  establishing  new  contacts;  the  quilt  industry 
now  reaches  several  counties,  and  weavers  have  been  encouraged 
to  persist  in  their  old-fashioned  craft;  a  market  has  been  created 
for  the  beautiful  mountain  quilts;  classes  in  home  nursing  have 
alleviated  pain  and  lessened  sickness;  ambitious  young  people 
have  been  helped  to  get  learning.     The  work  goes  on. 

Madge  kept  the  presidency  of  the  Gleaners  only  a  little  while. 
As  so  often  happened,  she  kindled  that  fire  and  left  others  to  tend 
it  while  she  went  on  to  kindle  new  ones.  It  seems  to  me  part  of 
her  essential  heroism.  She  never  stayed  for  rewards.  Other 
people  were  warmed  by  her  fires  while  she  was  in  cold  places  start- 
ing new  ones. 

The  Gleaners  have  no  regular  meetings  now.  About  ten  people, 
all  of  the  reorganized  group  of  1899,  simply  give  or  secure  work 
or  money  enough  to  keep  the  work  going  and  to  meet  opportunities 
as  they  offer,  always  under  the  Bishop's  direction. 

The  interesting  thing  about  Madge's  connection  with  the 
Gleaners  seems  to  me  that  it  is  an  early  example  of  the  principle 
that  animated  everything  she  did.  That  first  bit  of  Christian 
work  in  her  little-girlhood  was  to  help  another  child;  then,  to 
help  more  children,  sick  ones  in  the  memorial  cot.  Then,  taking 
the  same  agency,  in  her  early  womanhood,  she  enlarged  its  vision 
and  made  it  a  vehicle  for  help  to  a  small  community.  Then, 
she  went  on  into  her  widening  field  of  service,  until,  before  age 
touched  her,  and  with  all  her  ardours  undimmed,  she  was  ready 
for  promotion  into  the  country  where  God's  work  is  more  splen- 
didly, because  more  fully,  done. 


MAJOR  Mcdowell  and  madge  at  ashland 


A  GROUP  AT  ASHLAND 

From  uppei  right  to  left  and  down:  Mrs.  McDowell,  John  Fox,  Jr.,  Robert  Bums  Wilson. 

Crace  Otis    Stites  Duval,  Madge,  Marion  Houston,  Major  McDowell 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  HER  PUBLIC  SERVICE 

The  law  is  our  schoolmaster. — Gal.  iii:24. 

The  date  of  her  marriage  was  midway  in  a  decade 
marked  by  some  of  the  darkest  episodes  in  Kentucky 
history,  1895-1905.  During  the  early  years  of  the  decade 
there  developed  a  strong  antagonism  to  the  "toll" 
system  of  maintaining  the  "turnpikes."  And  in  many 
neighboring  counties  "  night  riding "  became  a  common 
method  of  destroying  their  value.  In  Fayette  County, 
in  which  Lexington  is  located,  there  was  no  nightriding 
and  by  a  skilful  development  of  new  roadways  the 
county  authorities  were  able  eventually  to  purchase 
the  properties  at  prices  very  advantageous  to  the  tax- 
payer. But  the  period  was  one  of  uncertainty  and  con- 
fusion in  the  local  administration. 

It  was  during  this  period  that  the  use  of  Kentucky 
soil  for  the  growth  of  tobacco  was  being  rapidly  developed. 
This  meant  the  introduction  into  the  population,  especially 
in  the  Blue  Grass  region,  of  a  new  element,  the  tobacco 
tenant,  and  the  rise  of  new  problems  connected  with  the 
marketing  of  this  new  crop. 

The  political  life  here  as  in  many  other  communities 
was  characterized  by  features  of  corrupt  organization 
that  was  for  the  time  unquestioned  by  the  respectable 
groups  in  the  community. 

In  the  "  Sound-Money  Campaign  "  of  1896,  for  example, 
in  which  Colonel  Breckinridge  was  the  leader,  there  had 

33 


34  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

prevailed  in  certain  districts,  among  them  the  Ashland 
district,  conditions  of  physical  threat  and  peril  that 
resembled  warfare. 

The  woman's  rights  movement  had  hardly  passed 
beyond  the  initial  stage  of  protest.  Owing  to  the  coura- 
geous and  devoted  effort  of  Miss  Laura  Clay  and  other 
heroic  spirits,  the  Kentucky  Equal  Rights  Association 
had  been  organized'  in  1898-99.  The  State  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs  had  been  formed  in  1894  and  was  gaining 
a  wider  hold  on  the  women  of  the  state.  But  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1899,  there  could  hardly  be  said  to  be  a 
widespread  woman's  movement  or  a  special  conscious- 
ness of  power  among  the  women's  organizations.  In 
February,  1899,  there  occurred,  however,  an  incident 
which  showed  the  demoralized  condition  of  the  local 
government  and  made  clear  the  fact  that  unless  the 
women  of  the  community  could  exercise  constructive 
leadership  there  was  little  hope  in  the  community  of  other 
than  criminal  lawlessness  amounting  to  anarchy  and 
chaos. 

One  group  that  was  conspicuously  above  and  beyond 
the  law  was  a  gang  gathered  about  a  family  by  the 
name  of  McNamara.  The  father  was  known  as  Red 
McNamara — there  were  six  sons,  one  of  whom,  John, 
was  known  as  "King"  McNamara. 

In  the  late  afternoon  of  Saturday,  February  11,  1899, 
in  one  of  the  most  frequented  and  public  spots  in  Lexing- 
ton, the  corner  of  Main  and  Upper  streets,  a  very  respect- 
able and  quiet  gentleman,  Mr.  Jacob  Keller,  on  his  way 
home  from  work  was  brutally  and  without  provocation 
fatally  wounded  by  John,  or  "King"  McNamara. 

^Anthony  and  Harper,  History  of  Woman  Suffrage,  Vol.  IV,  chap.  xli. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  HER  PUBLIC  SERVICE       35 

The  murderer  gave  himself  up  and  was  released  on  a 
$1,000  bond,  which  proved  afterward  to  be  invalid  because 
of  some  irregularity  in  the  signature.  It  was  at  first 
thought  that  Mr.  Keller's  wound  was  not  serious,  but 
it  proved  fatal  and  he  died  on  Monday,  the  thirteenth. 
When  Mr.  Keller  died,  McNamara  was  again  arrested  and 
brought  before  the  examining  magistrate,  and  again  re- 
leased on  a  $1,000  bond.  At  the  time  of  the  examining 
trial  the  following  Saturday,  he  failed  to  appear.  On 
the  same  day  his  brother,  "Squire''  W.  J.  McNamara, 
shot  and  seriously  wounded  an  officer  of  the  law. 

No  steps  being  taken  by  the  authorities  either  to  hold 
or  to  apprehend  the  murderer,  a  number  of  women  of  the 
community  assembled  for  the  purpose  not  only  of  arousing 
a  greater  interest,  but  of  developing  some  plan  for  action. 
A  mass  meeting  was  swiftly  planned  by  representatives 
of  the  various  women's  organizations,  and  a  call  was 
issued  on  February  19  for  a  meeting  to  be  held  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  twenty-second.  The  object  of  this  meet- 
ing was  stated  to  be  "to  protest  against  the  murder  of 
Jacob  S.  Keller,  and  to  raise  a  subscription  for  the  purpose 
of  offering  a  reward."  The  call  for  the  meeting  was 
signed  by  representatives  of  the  Woman's  Club,  the 
Transylvania  Club,  and  the  Women's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union. 

At  this  meeting,  at  which  moving  and  convincing 
appeals  in  behalf  of  law  and  order  were  made  by  the 
most  representative  members  of  the  community  (C.  S. 
Scott,  T.  T.  Foreman,  James  Todd,  John  T.  Shelby, 
R.  T.  Thornton,  and  Mr.  Beauchamp),  resolutions 
were  adopted  reciting  the  sequence  of  critical  events 
that  had  led  to  the  calling  of  the  meeting  and  calling  for 


36  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

contributions  toward  a  special  fund  with  which  to  supple- 
ment the  reward  offered  by  the  pubHc  authorities  for  the 
capture  of  King  McNamara.     Those  resolutions  read: 

Whereas,  On  Saturday,  February  nth,  Jacob  S.  Keller, 
a  citizen  of  Lexington,  was,  on  the  streets  of  Lexington,  shot  by 
John  H.  McNamara,  and  from  that  wound  died  on  the  Monday 
night  following;   and 

Whereas,  John  H.  McNamara  was  within  an  hour  after  the 
first  arrest  released  upon  a  bond  that  was  defective,  if  not  void, 
and  again  on  Monday  was  released  on  a  bond  for  $1,000.00  and 
is  now  a  fugitive  from  justice;  and 

Whereas,  We  beUeve  this  to  be  but  one  of  a  series  of  crimes 
which  has  grown  out  of  an  unsound  condition  of  this  community; 
therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  this  meeting  asks  every  citizen,  without  regard 
to  sex  or  religion,  or  politics,  to  contribute  as  his  or  her  means 
permits,  to  offer  a  reward  for  the  apprehension  and  delivery  to 
the  officers  of  the  law  of  said  John  H.  McNamara,  and  that  the 
money  so  raised  be  applied  to  this  purpose  and  to  none  other; 
and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  the  Governor  of  Kentucky  is  hereby  urged  to 
increase  the  reward  offered  by  the  State  for  the  capture  of  John 
H.  McNamara  to  the  limit  allowed  by  law;  and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  this  meeting  earnestly  urges  upon  those  officers 
of  the  law  with  whom  rests  the  power  of  action  to  remove  from 
our  community  the  reproach  that  now  rests  upon  it,  to  afford 
us  the  security  to  which  we  are  entitled,  and  to  cause  those  who 
have  so  long  possessed  a  conscious  immunity  from  punishment 
for  crime  to  realize  that  the  law  will  be  enforced  rigorously  and 
impartially  against  all  who  violate  it,  and  let  us  further  urge  that 
in  future  a  persistent  and  aggressive  fight  be  made  in  behalf  of 
justice  and  honesty,  by  the  good  men  of  the  community,  who  shall 
be  as  determined  and  as  unanimous  in  action  as  have  been  the 
law-breakers  heretofore. 

These  were  signed  by  Ida  Withers  Harrison,  Mary 
T.  Scott,  and  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge. 


.^av^^^t^X,-- 


In  1884 


In 


k .-; 


^^mm 


In  1893 


In  1898 


MADGE 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  HER  PUBLIC  SERVICE       37 

Within  the  week  the  thousand  dollars  desired  as  a 
reward  and  additional  funds  for  meeting  the  expenses  of 
the  committee  had  been  secured  from  popular  subscription. 

Madge  was  chairman  of  the  committee,  and  her 
presentation  of  the  resolutions  on  this  occasion  is  probably 
her  first  appearance  on  a  public  platform  other  than  at  a 
meeting  of  a  women's  club.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a 
career  of  public  effort,  which  from  beginning  to  end  was 
grounded  in  the  conviction  that  the  orderly  processes  of 
the  law  were  essential  to  all  progress,  that  no  apparent 
advance  of  public  interest  was  to  be  sought  at  the  risk  of 
lessening  respect  for  the  law,  that  it  is  therefore  futile  to 
place  on  the  statute  books  any  law  too  far  in  advance 
of  public  opinion  for  a  reasonably  .widespread  enforce- 
ment of  its  provisions  to  be  anticipated. 

With  the  end  of  the  year  1899  and  the  beginning  of 
the  year  1900  came  the  Goebel  tragedy. 

William  Goebel  had  for  a  number  of  years  been  a 
member  of  the  State  Senate  from  Kenton  County. 
In  the  session  of  1898  he  introduced  an  election  law 
known  as  the  Goebel  Law,  which,  according  to  a  saying 
of  Henry  Watterson,  ^Vas  intended  to  leave  nothing 
to  chance.'' 

According  to  the  provisions  of  that  law,  the  legislature, 
which  was  then  Democratic,  elected  three  men  to  compose 
the  Board  of  State  Election  Commissioners.  That  Board 
appointed  three  men  in  each  county  to  compose  the 
Board  of  County  Election  Commissioners,  and  they 
appointed  all  local  election  officers. 

This  law  aroused  bitter  opposition  but  was  passed  by 
the  legislature,  and  three  Democrats  were  elected  as  State 
Election  Commissioners. 


38  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Mr.  Goebel  then  became  a  candidate  for  the  Demo- 
cratic nomination  for  governor,  and  was  nominated  in  a 
convention  held  in  Louisville  known  as  the  "Music  Hall 
Convention/'  presided  over  by  Judge  David  B.  Redwine, 
after  proceedings  that  aroused  great  opposition. 

Democrats  who  opposed  the  principle  of  the  Goebel 
election  law  and  the  methods  pursued  in  the  Music 
Hall  Convention,  later  met  in  Lexington  and  nominated 
John  Young  Brown,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
older  members  of  the  Democratic  party.  He  had  been 
elected  to  Congress  when  less  than  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  and  had  been  governor  from  1891  to  1895. 

After  a  campaign  of  great  bitterness,  the  Republican 
nominee.  Governor  W.  S.  Taylor,  received  a  plurality 
of  votes  cast  and  was  accorded  the  certificate  of  election 
by  the  State  Election  Commissioners. 

Mr.  Goebel  and  his  friends  refused  to  accept  the 
decision  of  the  State  Board  of  Commissioners  and 
instituted  a  contest  before  the  legislature  beginning 
January  15.  In  this  contest  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the 
state  represented  Governor  Taylor  and  Senator  Goebel. 
The  Republicans  brought  to  Frankfort  thousands  of 
men  from  the  mountain  regions  of  the  state,  where  the 
Republican  party  has  always  been  strong,  for  the  purpose 
of  holding  a  mass  meeting  to  protest  against  what  they 
denominated  the  theft  of  the  governorship  by  the  Demo- 
crats, and  on  January  30,  1900,  Senator  Goebel,  while 
walking  across  the  yard  of  the  State  Capitol,  was  shot 
from  a  window  of  the  Executive  Bui  ding  and  fatally 
woimded.  There  was  of  course  great  excitement,  and 
Governor  Taylor  called  out  the  troops,  who  prevented  the 
legislature  from  meeting  in  the  Capitol  and  attempted 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  HER  PUBLIC  SERVICE       39 

to  prevent  it  from  meeting  at  all.  A  secret  meeting  of 
the  legislature  was  held,  however,  and  Senator  Goebel 
was  declared  elected,  and  upon  his  death,  Mr.  Beckham, 
who  was  the  nominee  with  him  for  lieutenant  governor, 
became  governor. 

By  what  seemed  a  miracle,  civil  war  between  the 
adherents  of  Governor  Taylor  and  Governor  Goebel  was 
averted.  Governor  Taylor,  who  had  been  declared  by 
the  Democratic  Board  of  Election  Commissioners  duly 
elected  governor  of  the  state,  fled  from  Frankfort,  as 
did  other  candidates  on  the  ticket  with  him.  The  state 
was  torn  by  factions.  The  spirit  of  lawlessness  and 
violence  seemed  to  prevail,  and,  as  the  McNamara 
tragedy  had  stirred  Lexington,  this  disaster  shocked  the 
whole  state.  The  women  of  Louisville  inaugurated  a 
movement  intended  to  be  state- wide.  They  organized 
a  "Women's  Emergency  Committee, "  and  on  February  6, 
1900,  held  a  mass  meeting  at  which  stirring  resolutions 
were  adopted.  These  resolutions  recited  the  disaster  and 
the  resulting  crisis  and  called  on  the  political  parties 
to  have  regard  to  principles  and  patriotism  and  to  the 
moral  standards  in  the  private  life  of  a  candidate  as 
well  as  to  his  public  record,  demanded  greater  pubHc 
control  over  the  carrying  of  deadly  weapons,  urged  more 
effective  enforcement  of  the  criminal  law,  and  called  on 
women's  clubs  and  philanthropic  societies  to  lay  greater 
stress  on  the  principles  and  practice  of  good  government. 

The    resolutions    read: 

Resting  under  the  shadow  of  a  great  calamity,  dishonored  by 
the  conduct  of  recent  public  affairs,  in  the  hope  that  the  united 
influence  of  the  women  of  Kentucky  may  incite  men  to  arise  above 
party  for  the  honor  of  statehood,  be  it 


40  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Resolved,  That  while  we  recognize  the  necessity  for  poHtical 
parties  in  a  government  by  the  people,  we  urge  that  patriotism 
and  principles  be  placed  before  party,  and  that  the  same  standard 
of  conduct  governing  private  Hfe  be  appHed  to  public  duties;  and 
be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  parents,  teachers  of  our  schools  throughout 
the  Commonwealth,  the  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  all  philan- 
thropic societies  and  kindred  organizations  in  Kentucky  be  urged 
to  co-operate  in  inculcating  principles  of  good  citizenship,  and  a 
realization  of  the  obligations  relating  thereto. 

Inasmuch  as  the  carrying  of  deadly  weapons  is  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  moral  disorder  and  resultant  crime  prevalent  in  our 
State;  and  whereas,  the  non-enforcement  of  the  statutory  laws 
has  rendered  them  practically  inoperative,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  expression  of  public  opinion,  insofar  con- 
trollable by  this  assembly,  be  such  as  to  enforce  the  execution 
of  said  laws,  and  to  compel  the  enactment  of  such  penalties  as 
will  prevent  transgression;  and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  said  public  opinion  call  for  the  enactment  of 
laws  providing  that  he  who  takes  life,  except  in  a  lawful  discharge 
of  pubHc  duty,  be  thereby  disfranchised  and  rendered  ineligible 
for  holding  pubUc  office. 

This  committee  of  Louisville  women  undertook  to 
bring  into  the  movement  women  in  other  parts  of  the 
state,  and  on  April  17  a  similar  meeting  was  held  in 
Lexington.  At  this  meeting  again  the  disturbed  con- 
dition of  public  affairs  was  pointed  out,  and  the  need  of 
a  permanent  organization  of  representative  citizens  in 
behalf  of  good  government  was  urged. 

The  following  resolutions  signed  by  five  prominent 
women'  were  adopted  and  plans  were  announced  for  a 
future  meeting  at  which  a  permanent  organization  would 
be  effected. 

^  Those  signing  were:  Miss  Sue  S.  Scott,  Mrs.  W.  S.  Threlkeld,  Mrs. 
Percy  Scott,  Mrs.  W.  S.  Fulton,  and  Mrs.  Shelby  Harbison. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  HER  PUBLIC  SERVICE      41 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  the  State  of  Kentucky  demands  of 
its  people  that  they  lift  up  their  voices  in  determined  assertion  of 
those  principles,  which  will  make  for  righteousness,  peace  and 
prosperity. 

Believing  that  the  present  disastrous  condition  of  the  body 
politic  of  our  State  is  only  the  culmination  of  years  of  political 
corruption,  disregard  of  law  and  general  civic  righteousness, 
therefore  the  purpose  of  this  meeting  is  to  aid  in  creating  a  public 
sentiment,  which  shall  demand  in  public  life  as  high  a  standard 
as  that  in  private  life.  Whereas  we  realize  the  duty  and  power  of 
womanhood  and  motherhood  to  assist  in  awakening  the  public 
conscience:  be  it 

Resolved,  First,  That  we  protest  against  bribery  and  corruption, 
all  fraud  and  violence  at  the  polls  and  that  we  entreat  voters  to 
guard  the  purity  of  the  ballot  box  as  they  would  their  lives. 

Second,  That  in  our  sense  of  the  sacredness  of  human  life  we 
condemn  the  common  practice  of  carrying  concealed  weapons, 
and  of  resorting  to  firearms  in  the  settlement  of  difficulties  as 
tending  to  crime,  and  demand  of  all  officers  charged  with  executing 
the  law,  that  they  enforce  it  and  we  urge  the  enactment  of  such 
penalties  as  will  prevent  transgression  of  the  law. 

Third,  We  beseech  parents  in  the  home,  and  teachers  and 
instructors  in  our  public  schools  and  all  institutions  of  learning  to 
inculcate  in  our  children  those  principles  of  true  patriotism  and 
civil  responsibility,  which  shall  lead  them  to  guard  as  a  most 
sacred  inheritance  our  free  institutions  which  were  purchased 
for  us  at  so  great  a  cost  and  which  are  now  threatened  with  destruc- 
tion. 

Fourth,  Recognizing  the  great  power  of  the  press,  we  urge  that 
its  strongest  influence  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  purity  of  the 
ballot,  the  sacredness  of  individual  character,  the  condemnation 
of  lawlessness,  and  the  carrying  of  concealed  weapons. 

Lastly,  We  acknowledge  for  ourselves  and  urge  upon  every 
woman  in  Kentucky,  that  so  far  as  public  sentiment  is  concerned, 
the  motherhood  of  our  state  is  equally  responsible  with  its  manhood. 
Furthermore,  that  we  need  from  this  day  as  patriots  to  express 
our  sentiments  and  to  teach  the  rising  generation  that  public 


42  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

opinion  is  a  power  formed  by  individuals,  and  each  one  is  respon- 
sible for  the  same;  and  we  pledge  ourselves  to  make  every  effort 
in  our  power  for  the  overthrow  of  lawlessness  and  crime,  and  for 
the  establishment  of  that  social  and  political  purity  of  righteous- 
ness, which  makes  good  citizenship  and  exalte th  a  nation. 

That  further  meeting  was  held  on  April  24,  when  steps 
were  taken  to  organize  a  civic  league.  It  will  appear 
that  Madge  was  active  in  promoting  that  meeting;  and 
to  the  work  of  that  organization,  through  which  a  great 
field  of  endeavor  was  opened  up  of  which  there  was  a 
slight  forecast  in  1900,  the  three  following  chapters  are 
devoted. 

At  almost  the  same  time,  her  attention  had  been  called 
to  the  critical  question  of  the  treatment  of  poverty  in 
Lexington.  The  winter  of  1900  was  a  hard  winter,  and 
there  was  suffering  among  the  poor.  Moreover,  a  new 
city  administration  had  taken  office,  and  the  begging 
members  of  the  community  were  inclined  to  try  the  new 
officials  out.  It  was  the  practice  of  the  City  Council  to 
appropriate  annually  a  charity  fund.  The  fund  of  the 
preceding  year  had  however  been  exhausted,  and  by 
January  3  an  emergency  relief  situation  had  developed. 
Further  reference  to  this  situation  will  be  made  in  a 
later  chapter;  here  it  need  only  be  noted  that  as  the  result 
of  meetings  called  by  the  mayor  the  Associated  Charities 
was  formed  on  February  14,  and  that  she  was  present 
at  those  meetings  and  was  concerned  until  her  death 
with  the  problems  of  sound,  wise,  constructive,  and 
democratic  treatment  of  all  who  suffered  from  pecuniary 
need. 

And  at  this  time  her  interests  were  being  aroused 
along  other  lines  as  well.     There  was  the  question  of  the 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  HER  PUBLIC  SERVICE       43 

care  of  women  students  at  the  university.  She  had  been 
a  student  there  ten  years  before  and  knew  something  of 
the  problems  of  the  girls  who  studied  there.  An  effort  to 
provide  for  them  better  facilities  of  a  domestic  and  social 
as  well  as  academic  character  was  being  developed,  and 
she  joined  with  zest  in  the  movement.  It  will  be  pointed 
out  that  this  connected  at  last  with  what  proved  to  be  a 
local  women's  movement.  This  effort  relates  itself  to 
her  later  work  to  secure  the  vote  for  women  and  must 
likewise  claim  a  chapter  for  its  treatment. 

It  should,  however,  be  pointed  out  here,  that  during 
these  early  years  she  was  developing  the  methods  in 
her  work  which  she  used  throughout  her  life.  They 
included,  first,  such  a  study  of  the  problem  as  to  give  her 
command  of  its  general  aspects  and  a  knowledge  of  its 
treatment  in  other  communities.  She  applied  for  infor- 
mation and  suggestion  to  those  who  were  attempting  to 
solve  the  same  or  analogous  problems  elsewhere.  She 
wrote  to  officials  and  executives  of  various  agencies. 
She  read  reports,  she  learned  of  those  communities  in 
which  the  most  aggressive  and  skilful  attacks  were  being 
made  on  the  evil  to  which  her  attention  had  been  called. 
And  then  she  examined  all  the  suggestions  and  theories 
in  the  light  of  the  immediate  local  situation.  Her  work 
had  always  "its  feet  on  the  ground,"  as  it  were.  It 
was  never  remote,  unreal,  abstract.  The  best  was  none 
too  good  for  her  own  community,  but  the  community 
could  often  not  recognize  the  nature  or  the  volume  of 
the  wrong  to  be  overcome  or  perceive  the  immediateness 
of  the  peril  or  estimate  the  gains  from  acting  swiftly. 

A  plan  had  therefore  to  be  worked  out  applicable  to 
the  particular  community,  as  wide  as  there  was  hope 


44  MADELINE  McDO WELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

of  gaining  acquiescence,  no  wider;  as  nearly  adequate  as 
was  compatible  with  the  higher  levels  of  activity  in  this 
community,  no  more  so.  It  was  always  into  a  real  situa- 
tion she  wished  to  fit  her  contribution. 

She  had  therefore  to  develop  the  educational  program, 
the  plans  for  publicity  and  propaganda  from  which  later 
action  might  be  expected.  She  had  a  rare  gift  for  straight 
publicity  work,  and  with  that  talent  went  the  capacity 
for  arduous,  tedious,  exhausting  work,  and  a  sense  of 
the  importance  of  details  that  amounts  to  nothing  less 
than  genius. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— GENERAL  SURVEY  OF 
ITS  ACTIVITIES 

NoWy  you  must  note,  that  the  City  stood  upon  a  mighty  hill:  but  the 
pilgrims  went  up  that  hill  with  ease  ....  though  the  foundation  upon 

which  the  City  was  framed  was  higher  than  the  clot4ds Then  I 

heard  in  my  dream,  that  all  the  bells  in  the  City  rang  again  for  joy 

Now,  just  as  the  gates  were  opened,  .  .  .  .  I  looked  in  ...  .  and  behold 
the  City  shone  like  the  sun;  the  streets  also  were  paved  with  gold;  .... 
And  after  that  they  shut  up  the  gates;  which  when  I  had  seen,  I  wished 
myself  among  them. — ^Bunyan. 

As  has  been  said,  one  of  the  objects  of  the  Women's 
Emergency  Committee  was  the  organization  of  the  com- 
munity into  groups  of  persons  pledged  to  study  the  needs 
of  the  community,  and  to  such  action  as  would  lead 
to  better  political  conditions. 

On  April  24,  1900,  therefore,  within  a  week  of  the 
mass  meeting,  a  group  of  persons  came  together  in  the 
new  Fayette  courthouse'  to  organize  a  civic  league.  Dr. 
Lyman  Todd,  a  distinguished  member  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession, called  the  meeting  to  order.  Mr.  Samuel  M. 
Wilson,  a  leading  younger  member  of  the  bar,  was  selected 
as  chairman,  and  Desha  Breckinridge  as  secretary  of 
the  meeting.  After  further  statements  with  reference  to 
the  need  for  such  an  organization  and  its  possibilities  of 
service,^  a  committee  on  constitution^  and  a  committee 

'  The  first  case  tried  in  this  building  had  been  called  Monday,  the  pre- 
ceding February  5. 

*  Professor  R.  N.  Roark,  of  the  University  of  Kentucky,  Colonel  W.  R. 
Milward,  Major  McClellan,  and  Mrs.  Breckinridge  were  among  the  speakers. 

3  They  were  Professor  Roark,  Dr.  Fulton,  Miss  Linda  Ne\dlle,  Mrs.  A.  M. 
Harrison,  and  Miss  Mary  McClellan. 

45 


46  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

on  membership^  were  appointed.  A  week  later,  May  i,^ 
the  constitution  and  by-laws  were  adopted,  officers 
were  elected,^  and  committees  appointed  for  permanent 
work. 

The  objects  of  the  organization  were  stated^  in  the 
constitution  to  be: 

1.  To  aid  in  collecting  and  disseminating  facts  re- 
garding the  rights  and  duties  of  citizens. 

2.  To  aid  in  arousing  the  sense  of  loyalty  to  the  body 
politic. 

3.  To  take  such  active  steps  in  the  interest  of  the 
citizen  as  at  any  time  may  seem  advisable. 

Already  eighty  persons,  among  the  most  influential 
and  able  members  of  the  community,  had  agreed  to 
join  the  organization. 

Obviously  during  the  first  months  of  life,  the  League 
would  be  called  on  to  meet  the  problem  of  selecting  among 
the  great  variety  of  lines  open  to  it,  as  well  as  to  determine 
what  methods  it  would  pursue.    The  education  of  the 

*  Mr.  Samuel  Wilson,  Mr.  C.  Suydam  Scott,  and  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge. 
'  Mrs.  Suydam  Scott,  chairman,  Mrs.  Breckinridge,  secretary. 

3  Samuel  Wilson,  president;  Dr.  E.  M.  Wiley,  vice-president;  Mary 
McClellan,  secretary;  Charles  H.  Berryman,  treasurer;  Professor  Roark,  Miss 
Neville,  and  Mrs.  Breckinridge,  members  of  the  Executive  Committee. 

4  When  the  League  was  incorporated  ten  years  later  (June  28,  1910)  these 
objects  were  more  elaborately  stated : 

1.  To  aid  in  collecting  and  disseminating  facts  regarding  the  rights  and 
duties  of  citizens. 

2.  To  promote,  assist  and  carry  on  such  lines  of  work  as  will  tend  to  the 
upbuilding  and  betterment  of  civic,  social,  and  educational  conditions. 

3.  In  aid  but  not  in  derogation  of  the  general  objects  above  set  forth  it 
shall  have  the  right  to  organize  and  conduct  playgrounds  and  encourage  the 
formation  of  committees  and  associations  for  the  promotion  of  better  schools, 
and  the  improvement  of  school  yards  and  gardens  and  to  form  organizations 
among  the  children  of  Lexington  and  Fayette  County  to  be  known  as  Junior 
Civic  Leagues. 


CM  O 

'-I        o 


^     2 

>  .s 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  47 

community  in  principles  of  good  government  and  instruc- 
tion as  to  the  needs  of  Lexington  were  among  the  obvious 
tasks  of  such  an  organization.  The  arrangements  for 
lectures  by  persons  distinguished  in  special  fields  of 
political  and  social  work  has  therefore  been  one  of  the 
constant  efforts  of  the  League  as  the  resources  of  the 
organization  have  allowed.  Beginning  with  the  problem 
of  "Good  Government  Clubs,"'  the  list  of  lecturers  im- 
ported has  included  Miss  Jane  Addams  and  Judge  Ben 
B.  Lindsey  in  connection  with  the  movement  to  establish 
a  juvenile  court,  Owen  Lovejoy,  and  Mrs.  Florence 
Kelley  in  connection  with  child  labor  legislation,  Mrs. 
Wells  from  Los  Angeles  in  connection  with  the  effort  to 
secure  better  conditions  for  women  offenders,  Mr.  Charles 
Zueblin  for  a  course  of  lectures  on  ''  Problems  of  Municipal 
Organization.'^ 

Perhaps  a  word  may  be  said  here  about  her  hospitality 
in  these  later  days.  In  the  earlier  times  Ashland  had 
received  the  guests  who  came  from  far  and  wide,  and 
Ashland  was  still  available  under  the  gentle  ministrations 
of  Mrs.  Bullock,  who  still  presides  over  that  noble  dwell- 
ing. But  at  337  Linden  Walk,  a  street  in  a  "new  develop- 
ment" to  the  southeast  of  the  city,  had  been  erected  a 
little  home,  into  which  Madge  moved  in  1904.  It  was  a 
small  house  in  a  large  yard,  in  which  grow  the  shrubs 
and  trees  and  flowers  and  vines  she  planted.  Here 
she  brought  the  guests  who  came  in  the  later  days  and 
as  has  been  said  so  "entertained  them  that  they  felt  them- 
selves for  the  time  a  part  of  the  community  and  the  com- 
munity felt  for  the  time  joint  ownership  in  them." 
These  visits  frequently  planned  and  so  arranged  meant 

*  May  29,  1900:  F.  W.  Hartwell,  Louisville. 


48  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

constant  channels  of  communication  established  between 
the  visitors  and  other  groups  and  other  individuals 
in  the  community  than  those  especially  interested  in 
the  cause  for  which  the  visitor  had  come — the  juvenile 
court,  or  school  attendance,  or  child  labor,  or  suffrage. 
The.  importation  was  often  possible  only  by  co-operation 
with  another  organization — the  Woman's  Club,  the 
Y.W.C.A.,  the  University — rarely,  in  fact,  was  the  inter- 
est represented  an  exclusive  interest,  and  many  groups 
participated  and  shared. 

But  "political  education,"  "education  for  citizenship," 
as  it  is  glibly  described,  is  always  apt  to  be  vague 
and  unreal  unless  directed  to  the  accomplishment  of  a 
more  definite  end  than  "improving  political  conditions"; 
and  the  League  with  a  sense  for  reality  that  has  character- 
ized all  its  work  began  its  second  year  of  effort  by  attempt- 
ing to  meet  a  definite  need  of  the  community.  That  first 
need  was  the  need  of  the  children  of  Lexington  for  a 
place  in  which  to  learn  to  play  and  to  practice  the  art  of 
playing. 

At  the  first  meeting,  then,  of  its  second  year  of  life^ 
the  subject  of  the  need  of  the  children  of  Lexington, 
and  especially  of  the  children  of  Irishtown,  for  play 
spaces  were  set  forth;  an  offer  by  Mr.  R.  P.  StoU 
of  a  lot  of  Manchester  Street  adjoining  the  Tarr  Dis- 
tillery, known  as  "Distillery  Lot,"  for  use  as  a  play- 
ground was  presented  by  Mrs.  Breckinridge.''  It  was 
decided  to  accept  the  offer,  and  Mrs.  Breckinridge  and 
Miss  McClellan  were  appointed  a  committee  to  confer 

*  April  i8,  1901. 

«  She  had  learned  to  know  the  needs  of  these  children  through  the 
McNamara  case  and  also  through  her  work  with  the  Charities. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  49 

with  the  Woman's  Club  and  to  obtain,  if  possible,  the 
co-operation  of  that  organization  in  the  undertaking. 

"Distillery  Lot"  was  in  the  midst  of  an  area  variously 
known  as  "Davis'  Addition,"  or  "Irishtown."  Politically 
it  was  described  as  "  Bloody  B."     As  she  wrote  of  it  later: 

It  was  a  precinct  which  with  pain  and  travail,  with  violence 
and  bloodguilt,  always  turned  in  the  Democratic  majority 
found  necessary  in  close  elections,  a  precinct  whose  voters  looked 
to  the  city  and  county  authorities  for  fitful  employment  on  the 
roads  or  the  streets,  or  as  constable  or  policeman.  ''Irishtown" 
had  been  about  equally  corrupted  by  politics  and  by  charity;  there 
were  families  that  had  been  beggars  for  generations.  But  there 
were  also  ambitious,  hard-working  families  whose  only  crime  was 
poverty. 

It  bore  all  the  marks  of  community  neglect.  Streets  were 
unpaved,  drainage  was  lacking,  waste  was  accumulated, 
the  two-,  three-,  and  four-room  houses  were  close  together 
and  crowded  within;  there  was  no  fire  protection,  and  the 
water  supply  and  toilet  facilities  were  wholly  inadequate. 

The  monthly  rent  was  from  $2.50  to  $7.50  according 
to  the  location  and  the  number  of  rooms.  The  population 
was  both  white  and  colored;  a  large  portion  of  the  adult 
population  was  illiterate;  the  men  were  generally  of  the 
unskilled  laborer  type;  and  the  women  had  little  incentive 
to  nice  household  ways,  even  if  they  had  possessed  the 
domestic  arts. 

And  over  all  poured  the  smoke  and  stench  from  the 
distillery.  Physically,  politically,  and  socially  there  was 
probably  no  sorer  spot  in  Lexington.  It  was  into  this 
neighborhood  that  the  new  organization  walked,  offering 
its  gift  of  children's  play.  For  at  the  next  meeting  a  per- 
manent committee  on  playgrounds  was  appointed  and 
the  co-operation  of  the  Woman's  Club  was  announced; 


50  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

and  during  the  summer  of  1901  the  first  playground  was 
maintained  by  these  two  organizations  for  ten  weeks, 
June  17-August  31,  at  an  expense  of  $275. 

It  will  not  be  possible  to  narrate  in  detail  the  develop- 
ment of  the  playground  equipment  of  Lexington.  In 
1920,  there  were  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  city 
five  playgrounds,  two  vacant-lot  play  spaces,  and  play 
activities  in  connection  with  three  children's  institutions. 
Two  of  the  playgrounds.  Woodland  and  Duncan,  are  in 
beautifully  wooded  park  areas,  the  former  a  nineteen-acre, 
the  latter  a  five-acre  tract;  one  of  the  parks,  Douglass, 
a  twenty-acre  tract,  and  one  of  the  vacant-lot  spaces 
serve  colored  neighborhoods.  There  were  twelve  persons 
employed  in  directing  and  supervising  activities.  There 
was  an  average  daily  attendance  of  1,095.'  The  city 
appropriates  $2,500  for  the  summer  work;  there  are 
contributions  from  private  sources  and  certain  small 
charges  for  some  of  the  activities;  and  the  whole  under- 
taking is  under  the  supervision  of  a  committee  of  the 
Civic  League,  of  which  the  city  commissioner  of  public 
works  is  likewise  a  member. 

This  playground  equipment  with  its  provision  for 
daily  care,  supervision,  and  training  of  the  children 
through  the  summer  months,  its  contests,  its  pageants, 
its  bathing-pool  in  Woodland,  is  one  issue  from  the 
Irishtown  experiment  in  1901;  for  in  1902,  as  the  Dis- 
tillery Lot  was  not  available  and  the  playground  had  to 
be  moved,  the  city  authorities  became  interested,  and  so 
the  development  went  on.  But  the  playgrounds  of  the 
city  were  not  the  only  result.  There  was  another  growth 
in  the  community  in  which  the  effort  had  been  begun. 

'  Without  counting  the  children  in  the  institutions. 


WHERE  THE  "IRISHTOWN"   CHILDREN   PLAYED   IN   1901 


A  VIEW  OF  IRISHTOWN  IN  1901 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE—ITS  ACTIVITIES  51 

In  the  following  summer  (1902),  although  there  could 
not  be  a  playground  in  Irishtown,  there  was  a  vacation 
school;  then,  in  the  autumn,  the  education  authorities 
gave  Irishtown  a  kindergarten,  and  so  began  the  West 
End  school,  which  is  now  the  Abraham  Lincoln  School 
and  Social  Center.  But  the  results  of  that  effort  must 
be  the  subject  of  a  separate  chapter,  for  there  a  "dream 
came  true." 

Probably  her  first  request  to  a  public  body  made  by 
personal  application  is  described'  in  the  following  report 
of  a  Board  of  Education  meeting — securing  the  con- 
tinuance of  this  work. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  School  Board  last  night  Mrs.  George  Draper 
Kelly  and  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  appeared  and  asked  the  mem- 
bers to  make  arrangements  to  carry  on  the  work  next  year.  The 
ladies  asked  for  $350.  Some  members  of  the  board,  who  have 
become  interested  in  the  work,  thought  that  enough  money  should 
be  appropriated  to  carry  on  the  new  department  without  any 
probabiUty  of  a  discontinuation  before  June,  and  the  sum  of  $400 
was  appropriated. 

The  members  of  the  board  are  almost  unanimous  in  the  opinion 
that  this  department  is  very  much  needed  and  were  more  than  will- 
ing to  help  the  work  along.  The  work  heretofore  has  been  in  charge 
of  several  ladies,  who  have  interested  themselves  in  the  work  and 
who  have  secured  the  consent  of  the  School  Board  to  use  the  kinder- 
garten building.  It  will  now  be  in  charge  of  the  board  itself.  The 
ladies  are  anxious  to  interest  the  board  still  further  and  hope  to  have 
industrial  departments  in  all  the  public  schools  and  specially  pre- 
pared rooms  and  equipments  in  the  new  school  buildings.  The 
board  virtually  promised  to  give  Irishtown  a  new  school  building. 

They  were  two  lovely  young  matrons,  and  they  got 
even  more  than  they  asked.  That  was  never  a  common 
experience  with  her. 

»  Lexington  Herald,  December  5,  1902. 


52  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

While  it  is  not  possible  to  review  the  early  struggles 
of  the  League  in  detail,  certain  facts  are  of  interest  in 
these  early  "minutes."  The  organization  did  not  meet 
regularly  at  first;  then  it  was  found  best  to  try  monthly 
meetings  on  an  appointed  day.  It  is  not  always  clear 
when  elections  were  held  or  who  were  officers,  but  it  is 
always  evident  that  Madge  was  "on  the  job." 

In  a  report  to  the  National  Community  Service, 
the  present  president  of  the  League  explains  the  situation 
in  this  way: 

Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  was  the  leading  spirit  for  these  two 
decades,  and  on  occasion  rallied  the  entire  community  in  the 
interest  of  the  enterprises  listed:  consequently  the  Civic  League 
never  did  develop  into  a  very  close  form  of  organization,  although 
there  were  a  number  of  standing  committees  created  each  year.' 

With  the  playground  work  went,  from  the  first, 
beautification  of  school  grounds  and  vacant  spaces,^ 
the  planting  of  trees  and  vines,  for  which  the  city  was 
induced  to  care. 

From  this  developed  in  1904  the  encouragement  of 
school  gardens,  the  distribution  of  seeds  by  selling  penny 
packages,^  the  offering  of  prizes,  after  inspection,  for  the 
care  of  yards,  a  city  spring  cleaning  day,  and  agitation 
for  the  City  Clean  and  Beautiful. 

Whenever  the  problem  of  children  in  poorer  neighbor- 
hoods is  attacked,  the  question  of  school  attendance 
arises.  Kentucky  had  already  a  law  ostensibly  requiring 
the  attendance  of  children  at  school  between  the  ages  of 

^  Lexington  Herald,  April  24,  192 1. 

*  Professor  Mathews  spoke  of  this  on  April  6,  1904,  and  a  committee  of 
which  he  was  chairman,  was  appointed. 

3  In  191 7  the  number  of  packages  sold  to  white  and  colored  children  alike 
was  about  10,000,  all  put  up  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Paul  Justice! 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE—ITS  ACTIVITIES  53 

seven  and  fourteen.  It  was  for  a  very  short  period,  and 
there  was  no  adequate  provision  for  enforcing  the  law; 
and  the  need  of  securing  new  legislation  on  this  subject 
was  presented  to  the  League  in  1903/  when  a  committee, 
consisting  of  Professor  Roark  and  Rev.  Burris  A.  Jenkins, 
now  of  Kansas  City,  was  appointed  to  look  into  the  matter. 
At  a  meeting  held  June  5,  the  drafting  of  a  law  which  had 
received  the  indorsement  of  the  Kentucky  Education 
Association  was  announced.  An  appeal  from  the  state 
factory  inspector  for  co-operation  in  obtaining  a  better 
child  labor  law  was  also  read  at  this  meeting.  The  legis- 
lation resulting  in  part  from  the  activities  of  the  League 
will  be  dealt  with  in  a  separate  chapter.  If  the  testimony 
of  those  still  living  is  to  be  trusted,  hers  was  the  passionate 
effort  that  pushed  into  being  the  compulsory  attendance 
and  child  labor  laws,  together  with  the  juvenile  court 
law.  However,  before  doing  this,  a  brief  resume  will 
be  given  of  the  activities  of  the  Civic  League. 

The  organization  was  somewhat  unusual  in  that  it  was 
composed  of  both  men  and  women.  In  1909  it  joined 
the  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  and  was  thus 
the  first  of  several  organizat  ons  through  which  men  have 
come  into  organic  relationship  to  that  great  body  of 
organized  women.  The  Board  of  Directors  was  composed 
of  both  men  and  women  until  19 18,  when  under  the 
stress  of  continued  war  conditions  a  board  wholly  of 
women,  a  "war  board,"  was  elected. 

A  word  may  be  said  perhaps  at  this  time  with  reference 
to  the  attitude  of  the  organization  to  the  question  of  the 
colored  child.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  in  Irishtown 
there  was  a  mixed  colored  and  white  population.     The 

'  February  23,  1903. 


54  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

policy  of  the  League  again  in  this  respect  was  character- 
ized by  reaUty  and  not  by  theory  or  the  doctrinaire. 
All  that  could  be  got  for  the  children  was  to  be  claimed 
and  obtained.  But  the  possible  was  not  to  be  laid  on  the 
altar  of  the  chimerical,  and  the  playground  in  Irishtown 
and  the  later  school  were  for  white  children.  The  effort 
in  behalf  of  the  colored  children  was  to  get  for  them  what 
could  be  got,  and  by  chance  perhaps  it  came  about  that 
the  colored  children  had  a  truant  officer  before  the  white 
children  were  provided  for.  At  the  first  meeting  of 
the  autumn  of  1904'  this  accomplishment  was  announced. 
And  it  was  so  with  the  provision  of  kindergarten  facili- 
ties, the  introduction  of  manual  training  into  the  colored 
schools,  the  sale  of  garden  seeds,  the  yard-improvement 
work. 

She  was  greatly  interested  in  the  problems  of  race 
relationship,  but  in  her  public  work  she  was  governed 
by  two  principles  in  this  matter:  first,  that  every  human 
being  should  live  under  the  conditions  making  possible 
reasonably  favorable  development;  second,  the  possible 
good  of  the  present  should  not  be  sacrificed  to  the  chi- 
merical good  of  the  future.  And  so  it  was  not  surprising 
that  on  the  day  that  her  death  became  known  the  colored 
people,  among  the  first,  made  public  testimony  to  the 
service  they  had  enjoyed  at  her  hands  in  community 
development. 

"First  we  bum  and  then  we  steal"  is  the  sequence 
with  neglected  children.  The  discovery  of  truancy  leads 
to  the  discovery  of  delinquency.  It  is  interesting  that  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Civic  League  at  which  provision  of 
truant  authorities  seemed  within  grasp,  the  necessity  of 

*  September  24,  1904. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  55 

taking  the  next  step  and  creating  a  juvenile  court  was 
discussed. 

In  those  days  the  words  ''juvenile  court"  meant  to 
most  persons  Judge  Ben  Lindsey,  of  Denver,  whose 
genius  for  getting  at  the  heart  of  the  boy  and  the  boy^s 
problem  had  received  a  national  recognition;  and,  early 
in  the  year  1905,'  plans  were  laid  for  him  to  visit  Lex- 
ington. Those  plans  were  not  carried  out  until  the  fol- 
lowing winter,  however,  when  a  visit  from  him  was  so 
timed  as  to  strengthen  the  pleas  made  before  the  legisla- 
ture of  1906  for  a  juvenile  court  law  whose  provisions, 
summarized  in  the  following  chapter,  were  enacted  into 
law  at  that  session. 

Questions  that  were  subjects  of  controversy  then  are 
settled  questions  today.  The  development  of  the  juvenile 
court  work,  like  that  under  the  other  laws  initiated  by 
the  League,  is  a  part  of  the  accepted  social  program  of  all 
progressive  communities.*  In  1906,  however,  there  were 
few  states,  no  southern  states,  in  which  such  legislation  had 
been  enacted.  To  bring  Kentucky  first  into  the  group 
of  communities  taking  an  advanced  position  on  subjects 
of  child  welfare  was  to  do  in  the  field  of  social  relationship 
pioneer  work  corresponding  to  the  political  and  physical 
pioneering  of  Judge  Samuel  McDowell  and  of  Madge's 
physician  ancestors.  ''What  Kentuckians  have  done 
Kentuckians  can  do";  of  that  she  was  convinced,  and 
she  was  therefore  never  daunted. 

To  the  co-operation  with  charitable  case-work  agen- 
cies which  grew  out  of  initiating  the  juvenile  court  law, 

'  January  17. 

'  See  United  States  Children's  Bureau  Publication  No.  70  for  a  summary  of 
the  legislation  on  this  subject  in  force  in  1920,  and  No.  65  for  a  study  of  the 
juvenile  court  systems  of  the  various  states. 


56  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

reference  will  be  made  in  a  later  chapter;  and  to  the 
subject  of  securing  that  law's  enforcement  and  of  develop- 
ing resources  under  it  should  be  devoted,  if  there  were 
but  space,  a  chapter  by  itself. 

During  the  winter  of  1903-4  she  was  compelled  to  yield 
to  her  old  enemy  and  to  go  west  for  her  health.  Both 
she  and  her  mother  were  ill,  and  they  spent  a  number 
of  months  in  the  High  Oaks  Sanatorium  in  Denver. 
While  she  was  there,  she  learned  at  first  hand  of  Judge 
Lindsey's  work  in  the  Juvenile  Court,  she  looked  into 
the  workings  of  woman's  suffrage,  and  she  mastered,  one 
might  say,  the  problem  of  tuberculosis  as  an  aspect 
of  public-health  organization.  From  Denver  she  sent 
back  to  the  Herald  letters  and  articles  on  all  these 
subjects  containing  delightful  as  well  as  comprehensive 
statements.  One  of  the  most  touching  and  revealing 
experiences  of  her  life  occurred  during  that  winter  when 
she  suffered  what  appeared  to  be  a  paralysis  of  the  right 
arm.  The  trouble  proved  to  be  temporary  and  was  later 
overcome,  but  not  before  she  had  learned  to  use  the 
typewriter  with  her  left  hand  so  that  she  could  continue 
to  send  back  reports  concerning  conditions  and  agencies  in 
Colorado  from  which  she  thought  Lexington  might  profit. 

This  had  meant  the  opportunity  to  learn  of  the  work 
done  in  Denver  at  first  hand.  It  had  also  meant  a  new 
reahzation  of  the  significance  of  tuberculosis  to  the  life 
and  economic  well-being  of  the  state.  On  her  return 
the  subject  of  tuberculosis  in  its  public-health  aspects 
was  presented  to  the  League,  with  a  plan  for  a  course 
of  lectures  by  persons  of  authority  on  that  subject  in 
the  community.  This  plan  was  carried  through  during 
the  following  winter. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  57 

So  great  and  so  specialized,  however,  was  the  task 
indicated  by  this  slight  excursion  into  the  field  of  public- 
health  developments  that  it  was  very  shortly  decided 
to  promote  the  organization  of  a  new  society  especially 
devoted  to  the  task  of  combating  the  white  plague  in 
Kentucky.  The  Anti-Tuberculosis  Society  was  therefore 
founded  in  December,  1905,  and  to  its  work  a  later  chap- 
ter will  be  devoted. 

The  year  1906  was  a  rich  year  in  the  results  that  are 
now  a  part  of  Lexington's  habit  of  life.  The  old  activities 
of  the  League  were  continued,  and  a  new  source  of  interest, 
support,  and  co-operation  was  sought  in  the  younger 
members  of  the  community.  A  "junior"  membership  was 
provided  for,  and  Madge  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  and 
energy  to  the  organization  of  junior  leagues.  This  involved 
speaking  at  the  various  schools  of  the  city,  especially  the 
public  high  schools  and  presenting  civic  questions  in  such  a 
form  as  to  awaken  the  interests  of  boys  and  girls. 

The  city  administration  (it  was  during  Mayor  Thomas 
A.  Combs's  administration)  was  at  this  time  peculiarly 
responsive  to  civic  appeals,  and  a  new  policy  of  enforcing 
the  law  with  reference  to  selling  liquor  on  Sunday  was 
inaugurated.  This  brought  to  the  community  the  question 
of  providing  Sunday  occupation  and  recreation.  The 
League  proposed  and  undertook  to  provide  interesting 
programs  on  Sunday  afternoons  at  the  Public  Library 
and  band  concerts  in  Woodland  Park. 

The  League  also  took  up  at  this  time  the  subject 
of  industrial  education  and  attempted  to  bring  it  vigor- 
ously to  the  attention  of  the  community.  The  matter 
of  school  attendance  had  been  the  first  school  problem 
taken  up.    But  school  attendance  is  a  problem  of  many 


58  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

factors.  There  may  be  a  lack  of  facilities — that  meant 
the  new  school  in  Irishtown.  There  may  be  lack  of  un- 
derstanding on  the  part  of  the  parents — that  meant  the 
social  work  in  Irishtown.  There  may  be  indifference 
to  the  law — that  meant  the  compulsory  attendance  law. 
There  may  be  a  competing  interest — the  job-^that  meant 
effective  child  labor  legislation  and  its  enforcement. 
There  may  be  a  definite  lack  on  the  part  of  the  school 
in  supplying  the  educational  matter  the  children  need. 
The  neglect  of  the  hand  and  failure  to  take  notice  of 
the  prospective  job  were  weaknesses  characteristic 
of  many  school  systems  in  1906.  The  League  pursued 
the  policy  of  pointing  out  the  weakness,  recommending 
the  remedy,  and  sharing  the  cost  of  applying  the  remedy. 
June  4,  1906,  it  was  decided  to  contribute  toward  the 
expense  of  a  manual-training  course  in  the  schools:  and 
the  next  winter,  Miss  E.  E.  Langley,  who  was  doing 
brilliant  work  in  this  field  at  the  University  of  Chicago, 
was  brought  for  a  visit  to  the  city  that  her  advice  and 
suggestions  might  be  available  to  the  school  authorities, 
both  white  and  colored,  and  to  the  League.  In  his  report 
for  the  following  year,  Superintendent  Cassidy  made 
grateful  acknowledgment  of  this  service.  He  said  in  his 
annual  report: 

I  am  glad  that  I  do  not  have  to  ask  this  year  that  manual 
training  be  put  in  the  Lexington  schools.  I  have  made  a  plea  for  it 
every  time  an  opportunity  offered  for  the  last  four  years,  and  I  am 
rejoiced  that  I  can  henceforth  speak  of  manual  training  as  a  growing 
part  of  our  school  system.  This  important  phase  of  education  will 
be  inaugurated  in  September,  with  Misses  Hubbard  and  Tuttle,  of 
the  School  of  Education,  Chicago  University,  as  Supervisors. 
Both  of  them  come  highly  recommended,  and  I  have  great  confi- 
dence that  the  work  will  be  a  success  from  the  start,  and  that  its 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  59 

growth  will  be  commensurate  with  its  importance.  But  it  should 
be  understood  now,  lest  the  results  of  this  phase  of  education  should 
be  disappointing  to  some,  that  the  main  purpose  of  manual  training 
is  not  to  send  out  skilled  mechanics  from  the  shops,  or  finished 
cooks  and  dressmakers  from  the  department  of  household  arts. 
While  it  is  true  that  boys  will  be  given  some  insight  into  the  funda- 
mental facts,  principles  and  processes  of  doing  things  with  tools, 
and  girls  intelligent  conceptions  of  the  proper  care  and  direction  of  a 
well  regulated  home,  neither  skilled  mechanics  nor  trained  house- 
keepers will  be  turned  out.  But  the  work  is  educative.  It  gives 
opportunity  for  boys  and  girls  to  exercise  their  physical  activities, 
and  to  express  their  individuality  through  some  form  of  hand- work. 
It  gives  pupils  a  sense  of  reality  that  emphasizes  their  entire  school 
life.  It  gives  an  opportunity  to  make  a  practical  application  of 
drawing,  mathematics  and  science.  In  fact,  it  is  not  an  inde- 
pendent and  separate  phase  of  education,  but  it  is  an  important 
and  integral  part  of  the  whole  scheme.  To  achieve  the  best  results 
it  must  be  correlated  with  the  knowledge  gained  from  the  books. 
Indeed,  it  is  through  manual  training  that  book-knowledge  is 
vivified  and  made  practical.  But  it  does  more.  It  frequently 
gives  a  stimulus  to  the  boy  and  girl  who  do  not  like  to  study; 
offering  as  it  does  to  them  an  opportunity  to  show  a  kind  of 
ability  that  can  not  be  demonstrated  in  the  class-room.  Above  all, 
I  think,  it  impresses  youth  with  the  importance  and  dignity  of 
work.  Under  it,  they  do  not  go  through  school  with  the  impression 
that  they  are  getting  an  education  to  avoid  work;  but  by  being 
constantly  associated  with  it  they  learn  to  love  and  respect  it;  and, 
finally,  they  are  confirmed  in  the  belief  that  the  more  knowledge 
they  acquire  the  better  position  they  will  take  and  keep  in  the 
world's  great  field  of  labor. 

In  securing  manual  training  for  the  schools  of  Lexington,  great 
credit  must  be  given  to  the  Civic  League,  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge, 
and  Miss  E.  E.  Langley,  of  the  School  of  Education,  Chicago  Uni- 
versity, and  to  our  Mayor,  Hon.  Thomas  A.  Combs.  They  have 
now  the  gratitude  of  all  who  are  interested  in  this  phase  of  education, 
and  this  gratitude  will  increase  and  broaden  as  the  work  grows,  as 
it  will,  to  the  proportions  of  usefulness  that  its  importance  merits.^ 

^  Annual  Report  of  the  Public  Schools  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  June  jo,  IQ17,  p.  16. 


6o  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

The  year  1907  brought  forward  the  subject  of  medical 
inspection;^  and  the  estabHshment  of  a  cHnic  by  the 
West  End  Women's  Club,  an  organization  of  women 
living  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  West  End  (Irishtown) 
School,  was  assisted  by  the  League.  The  development 
of  this  into  the  ^'open  air  school,"  etc.,  will  be  described 
at  a  later  point. 

The  League  never  forgot,  however,  the  original 
objects  for  which  it  had  been  organized,  namely  that  of 
improving  conditions  of  city  life  in  general  as  contrasted 
with  the  more  specialized  interests  of  the  child  as  mani- 
fested in  playground,  school,  and  juvenile-court  activi- 
ties; attention  was  therefore  given^  to  the  subject  of  the 
care  and  oiling  of  the  streets,  the  celebration  of  a  spring 
cleaning  day  for  the  whole  city,  and  the  removal  of  bill- 
boards that  marred  the  beautiful  speedway  on  East  Main 
Street,  which  had  been  named,  for  Major  McDowell,  the 
McDowell  Speedway. 

In  the  summer  of  1908  the  school  authorities  made 
provision  for  a  new  school  building  in  Irishtown  and 
appropriated  $10,000  for  that  purpose.  Measured  by 
the  cost  of  other  school  buildings  this  was  not  a  niggardly 
appropriation.  The  superintendent  had,  however,  recom- 
mended that  $15,000  be  the  sum  allowed.    He   said: 

Some  years  ago  some  good  women  of  Lexington,  led  by 
Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge,  established  a  settlement  school  in  the 
West  End,  or  what  is  better  known  as  'Trishtown. "  Why  it  is 
called  'Trishtown"  is  uncertain.  Such  is  evidently  a  misnomer, 
since  it  is  claimed  by  those  who  know  that  there  is  only  one  Irish 
family  in  this  community.  However  this  may  be,  the  wisdom  of 
estabhshing  this  school  was  manifest  from  the  first.  For  some 
time  it  was  only  a  kindergarten  and  was  maintained  by  private 

'  April  8.  =*  May  7,  1907. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  6i 

means.  It  was  then  taught  in  a  one-room  cottage  on  Manchester 
Street.  At  length  the  Board  of  Education  was  induced  to  take 
charge  of  it  and  maintain  it.  It  was  moved  from  its  original 
quarters  into  a  three-room  brick  cottage  on  the  same  street,  where 
there  are  a  kindergarten  and  four  grades.  Besides  erecting  a  one- 
room  building,  which  will  revert  to  the  owners  of  the  lot  when 
ceased  to  be  used  by  the  Board  of  Education,  two  other  buildings 
are  rented.  Aside  from  the  loss  in  rent,  the  school  facilities  are 
about  as  bad  as  can  be  imagined.  They  are  neither  adequate  to 
the  comfort  of  the  pupils  nor  to  increasing  their  self-respect. 

Aside  from  giving  means  for  building  a  high  school,  the  recent 
bond  issue  of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  makes  it  possible  to  give 
this  important  locality  a  good  school  building.  Not  less  than  fif- 
teen thousand  dollars  should  be  set  aside  for  this  purpose.  The 
ladies  who  were  mainly  instrumental  in  the  establishment  of  the 
school  are  still,  and  naturally  so,  greatly  interested  in  its  welfare. 
Not  only  is  the  leader  in  the  movement  enough  interested  to  offer 
to  devote  her  time  and  energy  to  attempting  to  raise  a  sum  of 
money  equal  to  that  set  apart  by  the  Board  of  Education,  but  she 
is  anxious  to  have  the  school  maintained  in  a  manner  adapted  to 
the  peculiar  needs  of  the  children  who  will  attend  it.  The  erection 
of  such  a  school  as  is  contemplated  in  this  locality,  and  its  main- 
tenance along  the  lines  most  desirable  for  it  will  not  only  be  of 
incalculable  benefit  to  that  community,  but  to  the  city  as  well.  An 
adequate  building  in  this  locality,  and  the  putting  of  another  story 
on  the  Arlington  School,  will  give  the  white  children  of  Lexington 
excellent  school  facilities.^ 

It  was  obvious  to  the  League  that  no  ordinary  school 
building  could  serve  that  neighborhood  as  it  needed  to  be 
served,  or  provide  the  facilities  with  which  the  League 
would  be  able  to  render  that  service.  An  original  plan 
of  co-operation  between  the  League  and  the  school 
authorities  was  therefore  proposed  and  accepted.  How 
the  plan  was   carried  out  and   the  Abraham  Lincoln 

'  Annual  Report  of  tlie  Public  Schools  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  June  jo,  iqo8, 
pp.  14-15. 


62  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

School  established  is  described  in  a  separate  chapter, 
and  the  following  narrative  will  be  limited  to  the  activi- 
ties of  the  League  other  than  those  closely  related  to 
the  Lincoln  School  experience.  In  order  to  undertake  the 
responsibilities  foreseen  under  this  plan,  however,  the 
League  at  this  time  incorporated  under  the  laws  of 
Kentucky. 

In  1 910  the  League  was  perhaps  especially  interested 
in  improving  the  general  character  and  ability  represented 
on  the  Board  of  Education.  Under  the  school  law  pre- 
vailing at  that  time  the  Board  consisted  of  twelve  mem- 
bers, two  elected  from  each  ward.  Under  this  law  it  was 
a  common  practice,  one  that  occasioned  no  comment,  for 
persons  to  seek  positions  on  the  Board  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  the  patronage  of  the  teachers,  if  they  were 
merchants,  or  of  securing  contracts  from  the  Board. 

In  1 9 10,  the  Civic  League  therefore  indorsed  two 
women  candidates,  of  very  high  character,  who  had  been 
nominated  by  the  Repubhcan  party,'  and  again  in  191 1, 
a  ticket  that  might  be  described  as  a  ''fusion''  ticket,  was 
indorsed.  But  it  had  become  clear  that  the  structure  of 
the  Board  was  itself  an  important  factor  in  its  deficiencies. 
The  size  and  the  method  of  selection  prevented  the  ablest 
and  most  public-spirited  from  serving  and  also  rendered 
it  difficult  to  locate  and  fix  responsibility.  Louisville 
had  got  a  "  small -school  board  law"  in  19 10,''  and  after 
a  very  thorough  study  of  the  recent  thought  on  this 
subject  the  League  decided  to  urge  a  statute  under  which 
the   number   of   members   of   the   Board   in   Lexington 

*  Miss  Linda  Neville  and  Miss  Margaret  Brown,  They  were  both  very- 
able  active  members  of  the  League,  both  college  graduates,  and  both  among 
the  numerous  "kin"  to  whom  reference  was  made  in  chap.  ii. 

'  Acts  of  1 910,  chap.  2. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE—ITS  ACTIVITIES  63 

would  be  reduced  to  five,  selected  from  the  city  at  large 
to  serve  for  terms  of  four  years,  nominations  to  be  made 
by  petition,  the  ballots  to  be  without  party  emblem. 
The  League  indorsed  the  proposed  measure  on  June  23, 
191 1,  and  the  act  was  passed  by  the  following  legislature.' 
The  following  account  of  the  effort  to  secure  this  law 
shows  something  of  the  volume  and  thoroughness  of  the 
League's  legislative  work: 

Members  of  the  Civic  League  of  Lexington  are  feeling  much 
gratified  at  the  passing  of  the  new  school  law  for  the  cities  of  the 
second  class.  At  the  session  of  the  Legislature  two  years  ago  an 
effort  was  made  by  the  Civic  League  without  success  to  get  such  a 
bill  through.  In  June  of  last  year  a  public  meeting  was  called,  at 
which  there  was  a  discussion  of  the  law  in  force  in  Louisville  and  in 
other  cities,  after  which  it  was  proposed  to  model  the  Lexington 
law.  A  committee  of  the  Civic  League  was  appointed,  of  which 
Dr.  George  P.  Sprague  was  chairman,  with  instructions  to  call  a 
conference  from  the  other  second  class  cities  that  they  might 
together  agree  on  the  bill,  and  also  to  bring  to  it  some  persons  from 
Louisville  to  give  the  new  committee  the  benefit  of  that  city's 
experience. 

In  the  autumn  a  second  public  meeting  was  held,  addressed  by 
Superintendent  Holland  of  the  Louisville  Public  Schools  and  Dr. 
I.  N.  Bloom  of  the  Louisville  School  Board.  Previous  to  this  meet- 
ing a  conference  was  held  with  these  gentlemen  and  with  eight 
or  ten  representatives  from  Covington  and  Newport  and  as  many 
more  Lexington  members  of  the  Civic  League.  This  conference  was 
followed  by  two  others,  one  in  Covington  and  one  in  Frankfort,  at 
which  the  Representatives  in  the  Legislature  from  the  second  class 
cities  were  present.  The  bill,  as  agreed  on,  was  acceptable  to  all 
parties;  it  was  presented  in  the  House  by  Mr.  Price  of  Covington, 
and  in  the  Senate  by  Senator  William  V.  Eaton  of  Paducah.  These 
gentlemen  showed  real  interest  in  the  measure,  and  the  successful 
outcome  is  entirely  due  to  their  efforts. 

^  Acts  of  igi2y  chap.  137. 


64  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Certain  amendments  not  desired  by  the  Joint  Committee  from 
the  four  second  class  cities  were  put  into  the  bill  in  the  Legislature, 
both  the  maximum  and  minimum  tax  rate  were  much  reduced. 
A  clause  that  all  employes  shall  hold  their  office  for  the  full  term 
for  which  they  have  been  elected  ties  the  hands  of  the  new  school 
board  in  this  city  and  in  Covington,  at  least — we  are  not  informed 
as  to  the  other  two  cities — for  two  years  and  a  half  after  the  new 
school  board  takes  charge  as  to  the  offices  of  Superintendent  of 
Schools  and  Business  Director.  The  Business  Director  will  fulfil 
the  duties  of  the  present  Clerk  of  the  School  Board,  and  in  addition 
will  take  charge  of  most  of  the  repairing  of  buildings  and  keeping 
up  the  material  equipment  of  the  school  system.  It  would  have 
been  preferable  that  the  new  Board,  though  in  each  city  it  might 
have  chosen  a  Superintendent  and  Business  Director  and  present 
Superintendent  and  Clerk,  should  have  been  free  to  choose  officers 
for  themselves. 

However,  the  law  in  its  main  features  is  so  great  an  improve- 
ment over  the  present  system  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  cavil  at 
the  defects  that  had  to  be  accepted.  Probably  the  most  impor- 
tant single  feature  is  that  the  school  ticket  hereafter  will  bear 
no  party  emblem.  It  will  have  ''School  Ticket"  at  the  head  and 
the  names  of  the  candidates  will  be  arranged  in  alphabetical  order, 
and  the  voter  must  stamp  opposite  the  names  of  those  candidates 
whom  he  desires  to  elect.  Politics  is  thus  eliminated  from  the 
school  elections,  and  a  virtual  educational  qualification  of  the  best 
kind  is  established.  That  the  numbering  of  candidates  may  not 
be  able  to  take  the  place  of  the  party  emblem  for  instructing  ilHter- 
ate  voters,  it  is  provided  that  the  order  in  which  the  candidates' 
names  are  printed  on  the  ballot  shall  be  changed  on  each  fifty 
ballots  printed,  the  books  of  ballots  being  bound  so  as  to  give  as 
nearly  equal  a  number  beginning  with  the  name  of  each  candidate 
as  possible. 

The  School  Board  members  are  chosen  from  the  city  at  large. 
They  serve  for  four  years.  Only  five  are  to  be  elected  the  first 
year;  the  elections  will  be  held  every  two  years  and  at  the  subse- 
quent elections  the  number  chosen  will  be  three  and  two  members 
alternately. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  65 

With  so  small  a  number  of  persons  to  be  chosen,  with  the  city 
at  large  to  choose  from,  it  seems  reasonable  to  expect  that  only 
p)ersons  of  known  intelligence,  capacity  and  probity  will  be  able 
to  carry  an  election.    The  day  of  the  dark  horse  is  over. 

There  is  incorporated  in  the  law  an  oath  of  office  for  School 
Board  members  similar  to  the  one  to  which  St.  Louis  attributes 
much  of  the  improvement  in  her  school  system  under  the  new  Small 
School  Board  law:  Each  member  is  required  to  swear  that  in 
choosing  employes  for  the  schools  he  will  consider  fitness  and 
capacity  only  and  will  be  guided  by  no  other  consideration.  This 
oath  acts  as  a  protection  to  the  School  Board  member  who  is 
solicited  by  his  near  friends  or  relatives  to  give  places  to  those  whose 
chief  claim  is  that  they  need  the  salary. 

The  spirit  that  breathes  throughout  the  law  is  that  the  schools 
are  to  be  administered  for  the  best  interests  of  the  children,  and 
that  standards  of  high  efficiency  are  to  transcend  all  personal  con- 
siderations. With  the  addition  also  of  the  literate  women  of  the 
city  to  the  school  electorate,  it  seems  that  this  new  school  law  will 
probably  mean  the  entrance  upon  an  era  of  marked  improvement 
in  our  public  school  system.^ 

After  the  passage  of  the  law  the  League  sought  the 
co-operation  of  the  Woman's  Club  and  the  Board  of 
Education  in  securing  an  efficient  ticket,  and  a  ticket 
was  finally  put  into  the  field  with  the  League's  indorse- 
ment. On  it  were  induced  to  run  two  women  and  three 
men  of  whom  it  could  be  said  "no  candidate  has  any 
interest  except  the-  good  of  the  schools,  ....  any 
desire  for  a  position  on  the  Board  except  to  render 
service."  Of  the  five,  three — Professor  C.  C.  Freeman, 
a  professor  at  Transylvania  University,  Professor  C. 
R.  Melcher,  of  the  University  of  K^entucky  faculty, 
and  Miss  Neville,  who  had  been  elected  two  years  before — 
had  devoted  their  lives  to  the  cause  of  education.  As 
to  the  other  two,  Mrs.  C.  B.  Lowry  was  one  of  those 

^Lexington  Herald,  March  18,  191 2. 


66  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

elected  the  previous  year  and  had  served  with  unusual 
distinction,  and  Mr.  Norwood,  a  successful  business 
man,  had  often  manifested  his  interest  in  educational 
problems. 

The  ticket  was  not  allowed  to  occupy  the  field  with- 
out opposition.  A  ticket  known  as  the  ^^ patrons'"  ticket 
was  put  in  the  field,  though  who  the  "patrons"  were 
was  never  made  known.  Although  two  of  the  Civic 
League  candidates,  Professor  Freeman  and  Professor 
Melcher,  were  named  on  this  ticket,  it  might  have  been 
well  called  the  "politicians'  "  ticket. 

In  spite  of  this  opposition,  however,  a  triumphant  cam- 
paign' was  waged  and  an  overwhelming  victory  obtained. 
Miss  Linda  NeviUe  led  the  ticket,  polling  nearly  three 
thousand  votes.  Were  Miss  Neville's  public  services  to 
be  adequately  described,  they  would  require  a  volume; 
and  I  must  make  grateful  reference  to  her  highly  original 
work  in  uncovering  shocking  conditions  in  the  Kentucky 
Mountains  that  have  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
state  and  federal  Public  Health  Service  and  resulted 
not  only  in  the  wide  awakening  of  interest  in  creating 
better  conditions,  but  in  the  restoration  of  sight  to  many 
who  would  otherwise  have  been  permanently  bhnd. 

At  this  same  election  the  question  of  two  bond  issues, 
one  for  $50,000  for  the  purchase  of  one  of  the  beautiful 
estates  especially  suited  for  park  and  playground  purposes, 
now  Woodland  Park,  and  one  for  the  extension  and 
completion  of  th^  sewer  system,  were  submitted  to  the 
voters  and  carried.   The  League  had  held  mass  meetings 

*  Over  39,000  pieces  of  literature  were  distributed,  mass  meetings  were 
held,  polls  were  guarded,  etc. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  67 

or  special  open  sessions  presided  over  and  addressed 
by  leading  business  men  of  the  city  in  behalf  of  these 
measures,  and  they  were  indeed  substantially  a  part  of 
the  League  program.  This  year  (191 2)  likewise  saw  the 
penny-lunch  scheme  undertaken  and  help  given  the 
parent-teacher  organizations,  who  became  responsible 
for  carrying  out  the  penny-lunch  scheme  in  the  various 
schools.  At  a  meeting  on  September  23,  associations  of 
this  kind,  organized  in  connection  with  two  colored 
schools,  asked  the  aid  of  the  League.  Through  the 
efforts  of  the  League,  too,  a  contribution  of  $300  had 
been  secured  from  the  Slater  Fund  for  the  Public  Schools, 
a  gift  that  was  renewed  for  the  two  following  years. 
What  might  be  called  the  "new  problem"  of  the 
League  for  this  year  was  that  of  better  protection  for 
girls  in  the  city  and  better  care  of  women  and  girl 
offenders.  Mrs.  Alice  Stebbins  Wells,  the  celebrated 
"city  mother"  and  policewoman  from  Los  Angeles,  was 
brought  to  Lexington  for  a  lecture,  the  conditions  under 
which  women  were  detained  in  the  county  jail  were 
called  to  the  attention  of  the  county  authorities  and  of 
the  community,  and  the  appointment  of  a  jail  matron 
was  urged. 

The  following  letter  illustrates  the  relations  between 
the  League  and  public  officials^  wherever  the  co-operation 
of  those  officials  could  be  obtained.  There  was  no  attitude 
of  futile  criticism  or  partisan  hostihty,  but  a  genuine 
concern,  when  it  seemed  possible  to  attack  an  evil  in  a 
constructive  manner,  to  propose  the  method  of  attack 
and  to  furnish  intelligent  and  positive  suggestion  for 
the  remedy. 


68  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

November  ii,  191 2 
My  dear  Judge  Scott  : 

In  accordance  with  our  agreement  of  yesterday,  our  com- 
mittee now  submits  in  writing  its  suggestion  for  improvements  in 
the  County  Jail. 

We  would  suggest  first,  that  the  clothes  of  each  prisoner  enter- 
ing the  jail,  be  taken  from  him  and  fumigated,  and  that  after- 
wards he  be  made  to  wash  and  clean  them,  and  get  them  into 
as  good  condition  as  possible  against  the  time  of  his  departure. 
That  after  being  given  a  shower  bath  he  be  supplied  with  other 
clothing  for  the  time  of  his  imprisonment.  A  daily  shower  bath, 
and  change  of  clothing  at  proper  intervals,  and  the  use  of  night 
clothing  seem  minimum  lessons  in  ordinary  cleanliness  which  every 
prisoner  at  the  jail  should  certainly  be  given. 

Further,  that  every  bed  be  supplied  with  cotton  sheets.  That 
those  be  washed  at  proper  intervals,  and  no  prisoner  allowed  to 
use  the  sheets  used  by  any  other  prisoner  without  laundering. 
Also  that  the  blankets  should  be  washed  at  frequent  intervals. 

In  order  to  insure  clean  beds,  we  suggest  that  the  plan  used  at 
the  Wayfarer's  Rest  in  Louisville  be  followed.  Clean  bed  ticks 
are  filled  with  clean  straw,  and  when  these  become  soiled  they  are 
emptied  out,  the  straw  burned,  and  the  tick  washed  again.  If 
regular  mattresses  are  used,  they  should  certainly  be  sewed  up  in 
cotton  cases,  which  are  changed  with  a  change  of  prisoners,  and 
washed  at  frequent  intervals. 

We  deplore,  as  we  know  that  you  do,  the  fact  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  give  the  prisoners  out-of-door  work  and  exercise ;  we  believe 
that  in  the  future  the  jail  should  be  on  a  small  farm  in  the  country. 
But  in  the  meantime  some  exercise  and  industrial  training  could  be 
procured  by  having  the  prisoners  do  the  washing  and  the  other  work 
of  the  institution.  The  conditions  of  dirt  and  idleness  at  present 
furnished,  certainly  constitute  as  bad  training  as  we  could  possibly 
furnish  these  delinquent  citizens. 

Surely  the  so-called  hospital  ward  ought  to  be  kept  absolutely 
clean  instead  of  being  in  the  deplorable  condition  in  which  it  now  is. 

We  suggest  that  seats  be  placed  in  the  woman's  ward.  If 
chairs  are  a  temptation  to  fighting  in  the  present  unsupervised 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  69 

state,  at  least  iron  park  benches,  screwed  to  the  floor,  could  be  pro- 
vided. 

We  hope  that  in  the  coming  year  the  Fiscal  Court  may  see  its 
way  clear  to  provide  a  matron  for  the  jail.  Access  to  the  woman's 
ward  ought  to  be  possible  to  women  only.  This  is  the  rule  in  all 
properly  conducted,  modern  penal  institutions  of  any  kind,  and 
while  under  fortunate  circumstances  no  tragedy  has  occurred,  we 
should  not  presume  that  these  fortunate  circumstances  will 
always  exist.  If  a  matron  is  secured,  probably  some  joint  arrange- 
ment between  county  and  city  can  be  effected  for  confining  all 
women  prisoners  at  the  jail. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  we  suggest  that  the  keys  to  the 
women '.s  wards  should  not  be  in  the  possession  of  anyone  except 
the  jailor.  At  present  food  is  carried  to  the  women  prisoners  by 
negro  men,  who  have  access  to  the  ward,  and  there  is  some  further 
communication  between  the  women  and  the  men  prisoners. 

The  food  of  the  jail  seems  wholesome  and  good,  but  there  were 
too  many  flies  about  the  kitchen  for  modern  sanitary  notions.  We 
suggest  that  in  considering  improvements  at  the  jail,  in  making  up 
next  year's  budget,  fly  screening  be  provided  for. 

Hoping  that  these  suggestions  may  be  helpful,  and  that  they 
will  be  received  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  are  made — we  feel  quite 
sure  that  they  will  be,  by  your  Honor,  from  the  evidence  you  have 
already  given  of  your  desire  to  improve  things — we  remain 
Respectfully  yours, 

Linda  Neville 

Madeline  McD.  Breckinridge 

Henry  S.  Breckinridge^ 

Sometimes  the  accomplishment  of  an  object  required 
v^^ork  extending  over  several  years.  The  effort  to  secure 
safer  conditions  for  girls  came  to  fruition  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  police  matron  only  in  1 9 1 7 .  In  November,  1 9 1 4, 
as  the  result  of  the  combined  effort  of  the  important 

» He  resigned  the  presidency  of  the  League  shortly  after  this  to  become 
assistant  secretary  of  war  in  President  Wilson's  first  administration. 


70  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

organizations  of  the  city,  a  vice  commission  of  ten  persons 
was  created  "to  investigate  conditions  of  commercialized 
vice  in  Lexington,  to  ask  the  meaning  of  facts  ascertained 
and  to  suggest  a  remedy  for  conditions  widely  recognized 
as  needing  cure.''  On  that  commission  sat  two  leading 
clergymen,  two  public-spirited  physicians,  two  lawyers, 
two  business  men,  and  two  women — one,  Mrs.  Harrison 
to  whom  reference  has  already  been  made,  and  the 
other  Mrs.  George  R.  Hunt,  a  member  of  the  board  of 
the  Orphans'  Association  and  of  the  Industrial  School. 

That  commission  reported  in  June,  191 5,"  and  recom- 
mended among  other  constructive  policies,  (i)  the  estab- 
lishment, preferably  by  the  state,  but  if  not  by  the  state, 
by  the  city  and  county  jointly,  of  a  farm  colony  for  the 
treatment  of  women  taken  from  lives  of  prostitution; 
(2)  stricter  state  legislation  defining  and  punishing 
offenses  both  of  men  and  of  women;  (3)  the  enactment  of 
an  "injunction  and  abatement"  law;  (4)  the  passage  of 
ordinances  by  the  city  authorities  dealing  with  the  con- 
trol of  vice  conditions  in  the  city. 

Following  upon  that  report  a  number  of  statutes  were 
enacted  and  a  number  of  ordinances  passed.  For  example, 
an  act  defining  and  prohibiting  pandering  was  enacted 
by  the  legislature  in  1916,''  an  "abatement  and  injunction" 
law  was  passed  in  1918,^  and  a  bureau  of  venereal  diseases 
was  created  in  the  State  Board  of  Health  in  1920.^  But 
progress  in  this  field  of  social  advance  is  very  slow  and 
difficult,  and  to  obtain  the  services  of  a  poHce  matron 

^  Lexington  Herald,  June  15,  19 15. 
'Acts  of  Kentucky,  1916,  chap.  49. 
3  Ibid.,  1918,  chap.  61. 
*Ihid.,  1920,  chap.  120,  sec.  3. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  71 

required  a  long  time  and  great  effort.  In  191 5  and  19 16 
much  effort  was  directed  toward  this  end.  Mass  meetings 
and  open  sessions  of  the  League  were  held,  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  confer  with  the  mayor,  and  finally  the 
commissioners  appropriated  the  necessary  funds,  and  the 
mayor  appointed  as  a  committee  to  nominate  a  suitable 
candidate  Mrs.  Harrison,  Mrs.  Breckinridge,  and  Miss 
Neville,  who  had  been  delegated  by  the  groups  interested 
to  put  the  subject  before  him.  They  sent  in  their  recom- 
mendation on  February  12,  191 7,'  and  their  nominee 
Mrs.  Egbert,  still  holds  the  position. 

Madge  was  greatly  interested  in  the  movement  to  re- 
form the  laws  dealing  with  vice  and-  to  estabhsh  agencies 
for  the  care  of  the  victims  of  vice,  but  she  was  unwilling 
ever  to  forget  that  the  failure  "to  give  the  play  instinct 
a  chance'^  was  one  of  the  great  sources  of  vice;  and  so 
at  the  time  that  she  was  urging  these  measures  on  the 
city  administration,  she  was  likewise  pushing  the  exten- 
sion of  play  facilities.  In  connection  with  this  combination 
of  community  tasks  and  with  her  efforts  to  develop 
"model"  play  facilities  at  Lincoln  School,  she  wrote: 

Some  years  ago  when  the  mayor  was  being  urged  to  enforce  the 
law  closing  the  saloons  on  Sunday,  the  promise  was  made  by  a 
group  of  Civic  League  people  that  if  the  saloons  were  closed  they 
would  do  their  utmost  to  "open  something  else, "  in  order  that  the 
people  might  have  somewhere  to  go  on  Sunday  afternoons  and 
evenings  for  recreation  that  would  be  healthful  and  not  morally 
dangerous.  This  was  before  the  day  of  the  "movies."  As  a 
result  of  this  movement,  the  Library  Board  petitioned  to  open 
the  library  after  church  hours.  It  has  been  open  ever  since.  Dur- 
ing a  season  the  Civic  League  brought  speakers  and  readers  who 
gave  public  lectures  and  readings  in  the  library  Sunday  afternoons. 

'Lexington  Herald,  February  14,  191 7. 


72  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

At  the  same  time,  money  was  raised  to  inaugurate  band  con- 
certs for  Sunday  afternoons  in  Woodland  Park.  These  have  proven 
so  successful  and  are  so  fully  approved  by  the  community  that  there 
has  never  been  any  thought  of  discontinuing  them  any  more  than 
of  closing  up  the  library  on  Sunday  afternoon.  They  are  now 
financed  by  the  city.  Duncan  Park  has  also  its  concerts,  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Property  has  just  begun  to  furnish  them 
for  the  colored  park.  This  is  really  the  first  opportunity  furnished 
the  colored  people  for  recreation  under  proper  conditions.  In  their 
case,  since  for  domestic  servants  and  many  day  laborers  Sunday  is 
their  only  free  day,  it  is  the  more  important  that  there  should  be  an 
attraction  offered  to  encourage  out-of-door  meeting  that  day.  The 
new  Booker  Washington  school  with  its  shower  baths  and  its  audi- 
torium, furnishes  to  the  colored  race  an  opportunity  for  association 
under  proper  and  advantageous  conditions,  second  only  to  the 
park — if  it  is  second  to  it — for  it  may  be  used  not  only  in  summer, 
but  throughout  the  winter  months. 

Shortly  before  the  Lincoln  *' model"  school  was  built  two  large 
schools  for  white  pupils  were  built  in  Lexington  without  any  pro- 
vision for  domestic  science,  carpenter  work,  without  auditoriums, 
shower  baths  or  swimming  pool.  It  is  a  proof  that  the  ''model" 
has  had  its  effect,  as  the  Civic  League  in  urging  the  Lincoln 
School  said  it  would,  that  it  is  impossible  now  for  the  School  Board 
to  build  a  school  even  for  colored  pupils  without  room  and  equip- 
ment for  domestic  science  and  manual  training,  without  an  audi- 
torium and  shower  baths,  and  without  wishing  it  could  build  a 
swimming  pool. 

A  group  of  people  in  Lexington  is  working  in  a  determined  and 
intelligent  way  at  the  vice  problem;  another  group  is  working  with 
untiring  zeal  at  restriction  and  prohibition  of  the  evils  attending  the 
Uquor  traffic.  Indispensable  as  are  these  efforts,  they  must  be  sup- 
plemented by  further  effort,  along  constructive  lines.  This  is  the 
work  that  for  twelve  years  the  Civic  League  has  been  doing.  It  has 
been  trying  to  provide  some  outlet  to  the  human  instinct  for  social 
congregating  and  for  recreation.  When  the  Civic  League  began 
its  work  there  were  no  parks,  no  adequate  or  equipped  playgrounds 
to  any  public  school,  no  school  houses  open  for  the  use  of  the 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  73 

people.  The  Civic  League  put  its  first  playground  on  Woodland 
Park  before  it  was  bought  by  the  city  and  urged  the  purchase. 
It  put  a  playground  on  the  Upper  Street  playground  opposite  the 
State  College  while  it  was  still  a  dumpground,  and  urged  the  City 
Council  to  cease  selling  lots  from  that  piece  of  land.  Some  day 
soon,  following  the  Olmstead  plan,  the  Upper  Street  property  will 
form  another  most  useful  little  interior  park.  The  Civic  League 
worked  untiringly  for  the  bond  issue  to  secure  Duncan  Park  and 
the  colored  parks. 

Since  the  "model"  school  was  built  the  Civic  League  has  main- 
tained social  work,  outside  of  school  hours,  summer  and  winter  in 
that  building.  It  has  proven  that  a  public  school  may  be  the 
social  center  of  a  community  that  has  no  other  such  center,  that  it 
can  become  the  pulsing  heart  of  a  healthful  social  life  among  old  and 
young  who  dwell  in  its  neighborhood. 

For  three  years  and  a  half  this  social  work  has  been  maintained 
on  funds  collected  outside  of  Lexington.  The  Civic  League  is  now 
appealing  to  the  people  of  this  community,  since  the  value  of  the 
experiment  is  demonstrated,  to  support  the  social  work  in  Lincoln 
School  and  to  open  the  other  public  schools  for  this  purpose  in  com- 
munities where  the  experiment  may  be  self-supporting.  It  has 
proposed  to  the  School  Board  to  employ,  jointly  with  its  play- 
ground committee,  a  social  supervisor  for  the  public  schools.  The 
members  of  the  School  Board  are  in  the  heartiest  sympathy  with  the 
plan  and  will  co-operate  with  the  Civic  League  if  finances  permit. 

The  man  who  said  "Let  me  write  the  songs  of  a  nation  and  I 
care  not  who  writes  its  history"  sounded  the  keynote  of  the  mod- 
em interest  in  proper  recreational  opportunity  for  the  people.  If 
we  can  free  the  play  instinct  common  to  all  humanity  young  and  old 
from  commercial  exploitation  and  immoral  influence,  if  we  can  only 
provide  the  opportunity  for  the  normal  human  being  to  be  good 
and  happy  at  the  same  time,  for  this  is  what  he  wants  to  be,  we 
shall  need  to  bother  far  less  about  the  question  of  public  morals.' 

While,  however,  Madge  always  remembered  the  pre- 
ventive and  constructive  uses  of  play,  she  was  deeply 

^  Lexington  Herald,  July  23,  1916. 


74  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

aroused  by  the  general  social  hygiene  movement.  In 
every  relationship  in  which  she  was  able  to  serve — through 
the  Civic  League,  her  suffrage  associations,  or  in  her  phil- 
anthropic relationships — she  sought  to  encourage  saner 
and  more  sympathetic  views  on  these  difficult  questions. 
Her  paper  on  the  "New  Hope"^  was  another  of  the  ex- 
pressions of  her  faith  in  the  essential  dignity  and  decency 
of  human  nature. 

But  to  return  to  the  year  1913,  in  addition  to  the  regu- . 
lar  activities  an  effort  was  made  to  arouse  an  interest  in 
physical  training  in  the  schools.^  The  need  for  adult  pro- 
bation officers  was  pointed  out  at  this  time,  the  creation 
of  a  tuberculosis  district  under  the  statute  enacted  in  191 2 
was  indorsed,^  and  the  problem  of  housing  in  Lexington 
taken  up.  Hopes  were  cherished  then  that  in  an  area 
hear  the  Lincoln  School  an  experiment  might  be  tried 
by  the  League  in  building  cottages  for  workingmen's 
families  that  might  be  to  other  housing  developments 
what  the  Irishtown  school  had  become  for  the  schools 
of  the  city  and  of  the  state.  A  committee  was  appointed 
to  act  with  similar  committees  of  the  Commercial  Club 
and  the  city  administration  in  furthering  such  plans. 
If  the  war  had  not  come  .  .  .  .  ! 

The  child  labor  law  of  1906  had  become  out  of  date, 
and  the  session  of  19 14  saw  that  act  brought  down  to 
date.   The  National  Child  Labor  Committee  sent  repre- 

^  Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Social  Work,  19 14,  p.  217. 

» January  13. 

3  January  2,  1914.  See  below,  p.  141.  Acts  of  igi2,  chap.  12.  The 
Louisville  Society  had  estabUshed  a  sanatorium,  and  the  legislature  granted 
$25,000  together  with  an  annual  allowance  of  $5,400  and  seemed  to  lay  down 
conditions  im4er  which  other  sanatoria  established  by  private  initiative  might 
receive  a  similar  grant. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  75 

sentatives  to  joint  meetings'  held  with  the  League  in 
furtherance  of  this  legislation. 

The  autumn  brought  a  renewed  campaign  in  behalf 
of  an  efficient  board  of  education. 

The  recent  story  of  the  Civic  League  has,  of  course, 
resembled  that  of  other  civic  and  social  organizations, 
in  that  the  pressure  of  war  activities,  war  charities, 
and  war  excitements  has  drained  the  interest  of  the 
community  and  rendered  work  very  difficult.  It  was 
as  much  as  most  organizations  could  do  to  keep  alive 
and  maintain  their  standards.  However,  in  191 5  the 
League  not  only  continued  to  develop  the  work  at 
Lincoln  School,  but  purchased  additional  property  for 
the  Lincoln  School  playground,  which  was  deeded  to 
the  Board  of  Education,  and  although  this  was  hardly  the 
time  for  taking  on  new  tasks,  the  attention  of  the  School 
Board  was  called  to  two  extensions  of  the  school  re- 
sources that  seemed  important.  The  provision  and 
wider  use  of  facilities  for  visual  education  were  urged, 
and  at  a  joint  meeting^  with  the  Board  the  purchase  of 
moving-picture  machines  for  all  the  schools  of  the  city 
was  discussed.  Later  the  League  bought  a  machine  for 
Lincoln  School,  and  the  authorities  have,  in  192 1,  agreed 
to  bear  half  the  cost  of  building  the  structure  necessary 
for  its  use. 

At  the  meeting  of  March  24,  1916,  the  Board  was 
also  urged  to  provide  supervision  for  play  during  the 
entire  year  as  well  as  to  maintain  the  playgrounds  during 
stated  portions  of  the  summer  months. 

The  year  191 7  saw  certain  advances  made.  A  bathing- 
pool  for  colored  children  was  obtained,  and  the  Lincoln 

*  March  24,  1914.  '  March  24,  1916. 


76  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

School  record  shows'  five  new  lots  bought  and  interesting 
work  done  in  providing  recreational  opportunities  for 
the  soldiers  stationed  at  Camp  Stanley."*  The  following 
year,  similar  work  was  conducted  at  the  university  under 
the  auspices  of  the  War  Camp  Community  Service. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  interest  of 
the  League  in  both  the  educational  and  the  recreational 
needs  of  colored  young  persons.  In  191 7  the  Board  of 
Education  both  paid  the  salary  of  a  recreational  director 
in  two  colored  schools  and  opened  a  new  school^  for 
colored  children,  in  which  there  were  an  auditorium 
and  shower  baths.  The  report  of  the  play  director 
gives  interesting  evidence  of  the  eagerness  with  which 
these  new  facilities  were  taken  advantage  of  by  the 
colored  children. 

The  following  year,  191 8,  this  effort  was  extended  to 
include  adults,  the  approach  being  through  community 
singing.  A  meeting  was  held  with  representatives  of 
colored  organizations  on  recreation  for  colored  children, 
and  the  following  week^  on  the  developing  of  community 
singing  in  colored  schools. 

In  1918  the  Community  Service  Incorporated,  or 
War  Camp  Community  Service,  as  it  was  known  at  an 
earher  date,  came  into  the  city,  arousing  possibly  a 
new  interest  in  the  problem  of  the  leisure-time  activities 
of  young  persons.  Cordial  relations  between  its  workers 
and  the  League  were  welcomed  by  both  sides.  Madge 
became  an  officer  of  the  new  organization,  Mr.  Raymond 
Fosdick  was  induced  to  come  to  Lexington  to  explain 

»Jime  15,  1917. 

'Lexington  Herald,  December  9,  1917,  and  November  26,  1918. 

3  September  18,  1917.  ■«  September  26,  1918. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  77 

the  new  work,  and  there  was  the  closest  co-operation 
between  the  two  groups.  In  1919  the  subject  of  a 
permanent  consolidation  of  the  two  was  discussed  and 
the  merging  of  the  League  in  the  Community  Service 
was  proposed.  That  proved  to  be  impossible,  however, 
because  of  the  funds  held  by  the  League  in  trust  for 
various  purposes.  The  final  action,  therefore,  has  been 
for  the  Community  Service  to  yield  its  name,  and  a  new 
organization  under  the  name  of  the  Civic  League  of 
Fayette  County  has  been  formed.  Under  this  consolidated 
organization,  efforts  are  being  pushed  in  two  new  direc- 
tions— the  extension  to  county  schools  of  activities 
developed  before  only  in  the  city  schools,  and  the  organi- 
zation of  "institutes"  or  brief  courses  for  the  training  of 
workers  in  recreational  technique. 

A  word  should  be  said  with  reference  to  the  League 
finances.  It  has  rehed  for  general  work  on  annual  mem- 
bership fees  and  contributions.  These  make  up  what  is 
called  the  general  fund  of  the  League.  In  addition  to 
this,  the  League  handles  several  other  funds  given  for 
special  purposes.  There  is  the  Playground  Fund,  which 
is  merely  the  annual  appropriation  made  by  the  city  to 
the  League  for  playground  purposes.  The  Commissioner 
of  Public  Property  sits  with  the  committee  of  the  League 
when  acting  upon  the  use  of  this  appropriation,  which 
is  increased  by  certain  receipts  for  the  use  of  some  of 
the  facilities.  For  example,  a  small  fee  is  charged  for 
the  use  by  older  boys  and  men  of  the  swimming-pool 
at  Lincoln  School,  and  during  the  season  of  1920  this 
charge  netted  the  tidy  sum  of  $300.  The  city  appro- 
priation is  devoted  almost  wholly  to  salaries  of  play- 
ground workers  or  expenses  of  maintenance  other  than 


78  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

equipment.  The  League  also  administers  the  "Anthony 
Dye  Fund, "  a  fund  of  $10,000  given  for  the  social  activi- 
ties connected  with  Lincoln  School,  and  the  Otis  S. 
Tenney  Memorial  Fund,  given  by  Mrs.  Joseph  B.  Russell, 
of  Cambridge,  toward  the  establishment  and  mainte- 
nance of  a  "model"  playground  in  memory  of  her  father, 
Mr.  Otis  S.  Tenney,  a  very  widely  beloved  citizen  of 
Lexington  who  had  recently  died. 

There  are,  of  course,  from  time  to  time  special  funds. 
For  example,  when  Madge  died,  some  of  those  who  loved 
her  instead  of  sending  flowers  sent  money  for  feeding  the 
children  in  the  open-air  school.  Over  $400  was  given  for 
this  purpose. 

Lexington  is  about  to  try  the  "federation"  plan  with 
its  social  agencies,  and  a  social-welfare  league  is  in  pro- 
cess of  organizing.  The  Civic  League  is  one  of  the  organi- 
zations that  has  gone  into  the  Federation.  The  sum  of 
$100,000  is  being  asked  by  the  Federation,  and  the  League 
is  promised  one-tenth  of  the  amount  raised  by  this  new 
common  effort. 

Reference  should  perhaps  be  made  by  name  to  some 
of  those  who  have  at  various  times  been  conspicuous  and 
devoted  in  the  organization  and  work  of  the  League: 
Clarence  Williamson,  Charles  H.  Berryman,  Allan  P. 
Gilmour,  Henry  T.  Duncan,  J.  Nathan  Elliott,  are  among 
the  names  of  men  to  whom  the  effective  character  of 
the  League's  work  was  partly  due. 

In  addition  to  the  men  who  held  positions  on  the 
Board  of  Directors  and  paid  membership  fees  to  the 
organization  there  were  many  who  responded  with  service 
from  without.    Conspicuous  among  those  on  whom  she 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— ITS  ACTIVITIES  79 

relied  for  sympathy,  co-operation,  and  support  were 
Mr.  Combs,  Colonel  John  R.  Allen,  Dr.  E.  B.  Bradley, 
Mr.  Paul  Justice. 

Miss  Sarah  McGarvey,  Mrs.  Margaret  Preston 
Johnston,  Mrs.  Lucy  Webb  Justice,  Miss  Linda  Neville, 
Miss  Mary  Nealy  McClellan,  Mrs.  Edward  L.  Hutchin- 
son, are  names  of  women  found  in  the  records  from  the 
beginning  to  the  present  time.  They  have  taken  up  the 
burden  of  "carrying  on." 


CHAPTER   V 
THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— SOCIAL  LEGISLATION 

Give  to  us  our  freedom;  give  to  us  our  rights. — Polish  National  Song. 

The  activities  of  the  League  have  in  general  been 
reviewed,  but  it  seems  necessary  to  separate  from  the 
main  thread  of  the  narrative  the  legislative  enterprise 
for  which  the  League  specially  stood,  which  laid  new 
duties  and  provided  for  new  functions  in  connection  with 
education,  juvenile  courts,  and  State  Labor  Department 
officials.  These  were  (i)  compulsory  school  attendance 
laws;  (2)  juvenile  court  and  contributing-to-delinquency 
laws;  (3)  child  labor  laws;  and  (4)  legislation  changing  the 
structure  of  the  boards  of  education  in  cities  of  the  second 
class,  of  which  Lexington  was  one.^  This  legislative 
activity  began  in  1902,  when  plans  for  the  strengthening 
of  the  compulsory  attendance  law  were  made,  and  has 
extended  to  the  present  time.  In  1918  for  example,  the 
child  labor  law  was  completely  revised  and  modernized, 
and  a  compulsory  attendance  law  for  deaf  children  was 
obtained  ;"*  but  the  League  was  especially  active  in  secur- 
ing these  measures  between  1902  and  1914. 

During  this  period,  Madge  was  likewise  engaged 
in  securing  tuberculosis  legislation,  other  school  laws,  and 
the  school  suffrage  for  women,  but  these  objects  were 
sought  in  other  organizations  and  will  be  discussed  in 
another  connection. 

^  Covington,  Newport,  and  Paducah  are  the  other  three. 
2  Acts  of  1918,  chaps.  46  and  102. 

80 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— SOCIAL  LEGISLATION       8i 

It  is  obviously  impossible  either  to  review  these 
various  statutes  in  detail  or  to  convey  an  adequate 
idea  of  the  volume  of  work,  the  unwearied  effort,  the 
extraordinary  intelligence,  the  courageous  return  after 
apparent  defeat,  the  brilliancy  of  statement,  the  pathos 
of  the  appeal  in  behalf  of  Kentucky's  children  that 
marked  her  activities  during  these  years. 

A  statement  written  afterward  by  Mr.  Flexner,  with 
whom  she  delighted  to  work,  on  whose  learning  and 
experience  she  drew  confidently  and  with  assurance, 
knowing  that  to  him,  too,  Kentucky  and  its  children 
were  very  dear,  dwells  upon  these  characteristics  of  her 
life-work.  To  Mr.  Bernard  Flexner,  formerly  of  the 
Louisville  Bar,  now  of  the  New  York  Bar,  and  also  of 
the  American  Red  Cross  Relief  Commission  to  Roumania, 
all  who  care  for  a  world  in  which  all  children  shall  have 
the  chance  for  free  and  joyous  and  protected  childhood 
are  under  deep  obligation.  He  has  been  willing  out  of 
his  leisure  time  to  untangle  the  intricacies  of  the  constitu- 
tional and  historical  limitations  in  which  the  problems  of 
reconstructing  the  judicial  system  in  behalf  of  more 
humane  and  intelligent  methods  seemed  to  be  involved 
and  has  been  able  to  point  the  way  in  which  such  altera- 
tions might  be  hopefully  undertaken.  Of  her  work  in 
these  earlier  years  he  writes: 

I  wish  that  I  might  express  to  you  how  great  a  loss  is  caused  by 
her  death  not  only  to  Kentucky,  but  to  the  entire  country.  There 
are  few  places  that  have  not  felt  the  impress  of  her  noble  effort  for 
community  betterment.  The  range  of  her  activities  admitted  no 
bounds.  Education,  suffrage,  pubhc  health,  the  courts,  better 
working  conditions  for  men,  women  and  children,  without  regard 
to  race,  were  one  to  her.  They  were  social  injustices,  wrongs  to  be 
righted,  and  she  would  help  to  the  uttermost  limit  regardless  of 


82  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

the  cost  to  her  health.  If  she  would  not  count  the  cost  to  her- 
self, neither  would  she  permit  others  to  do  so.  Time  and  again, 
in  the  face  of  overwhelming  discouragement,  her  vision  and  her 
intrepid  spirit  made  it  possible  to  save  a  situation  and  turn  defeat 
into  victory.  Her  unselfish  devotion  to  a  hfe  of  pubHc  service 
was  not  only  an  inspiration  to  all  who  came  within  her  influence, 
but  it  will  be  a  precious  memory  as  well. 

Many  of  the  questions  that  were  subjects  of  serious 
controversy  and  difficulty  at  that  time  have  been  settled, 
as  it  were,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  detailed  history 
of  the  developing  code  should  be  reviewed  in  detail  here. 
The  problems  of  initiating  the  new  protective  measures 
will  be  briefly  stated,  for  the  purpose  of  revealing  some- 
thing of  her  share  in  this  new  movement. 

The  legislative  program  in  behalf  of  the  children  of 
the  state,  then,  was  inaugurated  in  1902,  when  the 
Civic  League  appointed  a  committee  consisting  of  two 
distinguished  gentlemen,  Professor  R.  N.  Roark,  of 
the  University  of  Kentucky  faculty,  and  Rev.  Burris  A. 
Jenkins,  to  report  upon  the  compulsory  attendance  law 
then  in  force,  or  rather  then  on  the  statute  books. 
That  law  required  children  to  attend  school  during  a 
short  session — eight  weeks  continuously;  children  whose 
parents  could  show  that  they  could  not  afford  to  clothe 
their  families  in  a  manner  suitable  for  school  attendance 
were  exempted,  with  other  commonly  exempted  groups, 
such  as  the  mentally  and  physically  incapable;  and  while 
a  penalty  was  prescribed,  no  special  provision  was  made 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  statute,  which  was  left  to 
the  president  of  the  school  board,  or  to  the  school  trustees. 
It  was  obviously  a  law  offering  no  protection  to  such 
children  as  those  in  the  Irishtown  neighborhood.    The 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— SOCIAL  LEGISLATION       83 

drafting  of  an  effective  law,  then,  was  her  first  task, 
and  this  was  done.  The  legislature  of  1904'  enacted  a 
law  much  stronger  than  the  preceding  one,  applying 
to  cities  of  the  first,  second,  third,  and  fourth  classes,^ 
requiring  that  children  between  the  ages  of  seven  and 
fourteen  years  should  attend  school  during  the  entire 
session  (not  to  be  less  than  five  months). ^  Poverty  was 
no  longer  an  exemption :  special  truant  officers  were  pro- 
vided for,  one  for  each  three  thousand  pupils,  but  the 
salaries  were  to  come  from  the  local  treasury. 

.  Securing  the  law  was  only  a  beginning.  There  was  the 
question  of  inducing  the  authorities  to  provide  the  salary 
and  of  providing  the  right  person  for  the  position  of 
truant  officer.  As  soon  as  an  efficient  officer  could  be 
secured,  Mr.  R.  J.  O^Mahony,  the  salary  was  provided 
from  private  sources  until  the  Board  appropriated  the 
necessary  amount.  It  is  interesting,  moreover,  to  notice 
that  the  colored  schools  were  provided  for  before  the 
white  schools,  because  a  suitable  colored  officer  was  more 
quickly  found. 

It  is  now  well  recognized  that  a  good  attendance 
law  is  an  admirable  device  for  enforcing  a  child  labor 
law  and  for  protecting  children  against  premature  employ- 
ment. On  the  other  hand,  a  good  child  labor  law  is 
almost  essential  to  the  enforcement  of  regular  attendance. 
If  the  child  may  not  lawfully  seek  employment,  one 
great  source  of  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  co-operation 

^  March  22,  1904.    Laws  of  Kentucky,  1904,  chap.  94,  p.  200. 

'  Louisville  is  the  only  city  of  the  first  class;  Lexington,  Newport,  Cov- 
ington, and  Paducah  are  in  the  second  class. 

5  This  law  has  been  developed  and  amended  at  ahnost  every  session  since 
that  date.  See  Acts  of  igo8,  chap.  68,  p.  198;  Acts  of  1910,  chap.  80,  p.  233; 
Acts  of  1 91 2,  chap.  96,  p.  279;  Acts  of  19 16,  chap.  121,  p.  709. 


84  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

of  the  parent  is  removed.  The  State  Labor  Department 
had  been  quick  to  seek  the  co-operation  of  the  Civic 
League  in  obtaining  protection  for  working  children. 
There  was  at  the  time  no  other  law  prohibiting  the 
labor  of  children  than  the  familiar  item  in  the  law 
forbidding  cruelty  to  children.  The  first  Kentucky 
child  labor  law  came,  therefore,  in  1906.'  This,  like 
the  attendance  law,  represented  the  best  that  could  be 
obtained  at  that  time  and  prohibited  the  employment 
of  children  under  fourteen  in  factories,  mills,  workshops, 
or  mines,  limited  the  hours  of  children  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  to  ten  a  day,  between  6:00  a.m.  and  7:00  p.m., 
prohibited  their  employment  at  certain  dangerous  occupa- 
tions, set  certain  standards  of  sanitary  care  of  the  places 
of  empjloyment.  The  act  was  weak  at  many  points. 
Poverty  again  exempted  the  parent  or  the  child  from  its 
application,  the  vacation  time  of  the  public  school  was 
not  included,  vegetable-  and  tobacco-preparing  establish- 
ments were  not  included,  and  the  requirements  for 
proof  of  age  were  very  slack.  It  meant,  however,  that 
the  great  first  step  had  been  taken,  and  efiicient  enforce- 
ment and  comprehensive  application  were  matters  of 
time  and  aroused  public  interest. 

The  legislation  that  was  perhaps  most  difficult  in 
some  ways  and  that  presented  the  most  complicated 
questions  was  that  generally  known  as  juvenile  court 
legislation. 

Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey,  of  Denver,  had  awakened  a 
wide  interest  in  the  subject;  Judge  JuHan  W.  Mack, 

^  Acts  of  igo6,  chap.  52,  p.  296.  For  the  successive  revisions  see  the 
Ads  of  IQ08,  chap,  66,  p.  172;  Acts  of  1910,  chap.  85,  p.  256;  Acts  of  1914, 
chap.  72,  p.  212;  Acts  of  igi6,  chap.  23,  p.  160. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— SOCIAL  LEGISLATION       85 

at  Chicago,  was  doing  brilliant  things  in  working  out 
questions  of  method  and  organization;  and  Mr.  Flexner 
was  developing  the  historical  and  legal  theory  with 
which  the  assent  of  the  bar  and  the  co-operation  of  judges 
might  be  secured  for  what  appeared  a  radical  manipula- 
tion of  the  judicial  organization,  but  was,  in  fact,  merely 
recurring  to  ancient,  equitable,  and  humane  doctrines 
regarding  the  right  of  the  state  to  interfere  on  proper 
occasions  between  parent  and  child  and  to  deal  with 
youthful  offenders  rather  as  delinquent  children  than 
as  young  criminals.  Two  statutes  are  required  to  deal 
with  the  situation;  one  creating  new  penalties  for  parents 
or  guardians  who  bring  their  children  or  wards  into 
conditions  of  dependency  or  delinquency,  and  one  pro- 
viding for  children  already  in  peril. 

Two  such  acts  drafted  by  Mr.  Flexner'  were  passed 
by  the  legislature  of  1906^  and  marked  the  beginning  of 
a  series  of  such  enactments  in  behalf  of  helpless  children. 

It  will  appear  in  a  later  chapter  that  under  these 
statutes  a  very  close  co-operation  between  public  and 
private  agencies  was  developed  in  behalf  of  truant  and 
neglected  children.  Here  perhaps  it  is  enough  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  ages  of  children  included  in 
the  act  were  as  high  as  those  attempted  by  any  act, 
seventeen  for  boys  and  eighteen  for  girls,  that  probation 
officers  were  provided  for,  and  that  in  the  amended  act 
of  1908  was  included  the  plan  for  an  advisory  board  to 

'  The  name  of  the  late  Mr.  Albert  S.  Brandeis,  of  Louisville,  should  also 
be  gratefully  mentioned  in  connection  with  Kentucky  statutes. 

'  Contributory  to  Delinquency  Acts,  Acts  of  igo6,  chap.  54,  p.  302;  Acts 
of  igo8,  chap.  60,  p.  152;  Acts  of  igio,  chap.  76,  p.  226.  Juvenile  Court  Laws, 
Acts  of  igo6,  chap.  64,  p.  322;  Acts  of  igo8,  chap.  67,  p.  i8i;  Acts  of  igio, 
chap.  77,  p.  228;  Acts  of  igi2,  chap.  25,  p.  446. 


86  MADELINE  McDOWELL.  BRECKINRIDGE 

be  appointed  by  the  court  consisting  of  from  six  to  ten 
reliable  persons  who  should  assist  in  developing  resources, 
arousing  interest,  selecting  probation  officers,  etc/ 

The,  support  of  these  acts  by  the  charitable  and 
corrective  societies  of  the  five  cities  to  which  they  appHed 
had  been  first  assured  and  their  indorsement  by  practical 
students  of  crime,  and  its  treatment,  had  been  obtained. 
They  were  presented  in  the  lower  house  of  the  legislature 
by  Representative  Klair,  who  had  in  1902  taken  away 
the  school  suffrage  from  the  women  of  Lexington.  They 
were  said  by  Madge  to  be  so  drawn 

as  to  provide  the  oflScers  of  the  law  with  the  privilege  of  drawing  a 
well-defined  distinction  between  the  treatment  of  first  offenders  of 
immature  years  and  hardened  criminals.  The  Juvenile  Court  law 
took  into  consideration  the  power  of  heredity  and  environment  as 
factors  in  crime,  and  sought  to  open  a  way  of  escape  to  those  willing 
to  avail  themselves  of  it.  It  was  a  corrective  rather  than  a  punitive 
measure.  Its  purpose  was  to  make  good  citizens  out  of  poor 
material;  to  lend  a  hand  where  help  is  needed;  to  protect  the  weak 
against  enforced  association  with  the  vicious;  to  give  to  childhood 
its  right  to  another  chance.  The  value  of  such  a  law  had  been 
proved  by  its  practical  operation  in  other  States.  There  was  in  it 
less  of  sentiment  than  sense. 

If  it  was  passed,  children  arrested  for  the  first  time  would 
either  be  kept  separate  from  other  prisoners  in  the  jails  or  be 
intrusted  to  the  care  of  charitable  institutions.  When  their  cases 
were  caUed  they  would  be  given  a  private  hearing  before  the 
County  Judge  who  would  have  been  placed  in  possession  of  their 
family  and  personal  history  as  it  had  been  learned  by  an  officer  of 
the  court  appointed  especially  for  that  purpose.  The  decision 
of  the  court  would  be  dictated  not  by  the  desire  to  punish, 
but  to  save,  whenever  possible.    Where  the  offense  was  a  minor 

^  This  had  been  a  plan  cherished  and  urged  by  those  interested  in  the 
development  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  Los  Angeles.  In  her  copy  of  the  Acts 
of  igo8  are  lists  of  names  of  ladies  who  might  serve. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— SOCUL  LEGISLATION       87 

one  the  child  would  be  given  its  liberty,  with  the  understand- 
ing that  it  was  to  report  at  fixed  times,  in  order  that  the 
court  might  keep  in  touch  with  it.  Where  the  offense  was  of 
more  serious  character,  restrictive  measures  would  be  taken, 
but  the  restriction  would  not  be  such  as  to  brand  the  offender  as 
hopeless. 

The  bill  offered  to  Louisville,  Lexington,  Newport,  Covington 
and  Paducah  an  effective  aid  to  good  citizenship.  The  General 
Assembly  would  do  them  good  service  in  enabling  them  to  experi- 
ence it. 

She  saw  to  it  that  these  laws  were  explained  by  this 
kind  of  editorial  comment  in  all  the  communities  affected 
by  the  acts. 

It  is  in  fact  impossible  to  convey  an  adequate  idea 
of  the  labor  embodied  in  securing  the  enactment  of  these 
laws.  Women  had  the  intelligence  with  reference  to  the 
miserable  state  in  which  the  children  were,  they  had  a 
woman's  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  weak  and  feeble 
members  of  the  community,  they  knew  the  misery  of 
mothers  who  suffered;  but  women  did  not  then  have  the 
franchise.  It  was  perhaps  one  source  of  her  power  that 
she  felt  so  keenly  the  needless  suffering  of  mothers  as 
mothers,  when  children  were  surrounded  by  conditions 
hostile  to  their  joyous  growth. 

Moreover,  there  was  an  element  of  difficulty  not 
always  confronting  those  who  seek  measures  of  this 
kind  that  should,  of  course,  be  state-wide  in  their  appli- 
cation. This  difficulty  was  the  classification  of  cities, 
to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.  There  was 
an  advantage  in  the  fact  that  Louisville,  the  city  of  the 
first  class  and  influential  in  the  legislature,  would  some- 
times get  a  measure  first  and  try  it  out,  as  it  were.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  interests  of  Louisville  might  appear 


88  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

to  conflict  with  those  of  other  communities,  and  the 
smaller  ones  might  find  themselves  postponed  and 
neglected. 

Then,  too,  the  fact  that  legislation  applicable  to 
Lexington  applied  also  to  the  three  other  cities  named, 
Covington,  Newport,  and  Paducah,  meant  that  the  co- 
operation and  support  of  persons  influential  in  these  cities 
had  to  be  obtained  in  detail.  It  was  not  enough  that 
they  did  not  oppose.  They  had  positively  to  acquiesce. 
Otherwise  the  passage  of  the  act  was  impossible.  These 
elements  in  the  situation  rendered  it  more  difficult 
than  similar  efforts  would  be  in  a  state  where  such  legis- 
lation is  general  in  its  apphcation.  There,  the  difficulties 
of  overcoming  the  hostility  of  the  interests  concerned  to 
maintain  conditions  hostile  to  children — the  employer  of 
child  labor,  the  corrupt  or  indifferent  school  authority, 
aU  those  whose  very  existence  spell  neglected  and  ex- 
ploited childhood — are  sufficiently  great,  but  the  problem 
in  Kentucky  was  even  more  complicated  and  more 
obstinate.  It  is  only  to  be  hoped  that  the  additional 
work  of  a  preliminary  character  required,  may  have 
meant  a  wider  understanding  and  a  more  swiftly  efficient 
enforcing  of  these  acts.  On  that  point,  of  course,  nothing 
definite  can  be  said. 

But  by  means  of  the  juvenile  court  machinery  and 
imder  the  contributing-to-delinquency  laws  it  became 
possible  for  women  to  obtain  access  to  the  court. 
Degraded  homes  might,  if  the  judge  had  respect  for  the 
law,  be  dealt  with  and  conditions  giving  rise  to  dehnquency 
on  the  part  of  either  boys  or  girls  were,  so  far  as  the  law 
was  concerned,  given  the  character  of  a  public  nuisance. 
There  was  still  the  necessity  of  developing  resources 


MAJOR  HENRY  CLAY  McDOWELL 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— SOCIAL  LEGISLATION       89 

for  which  the  local  treasury  had  to  pay.  But  the  first 
step,  which  always  costs  so  heavily,  had  been  taken. 

At  the  session  of  19 10,  a  Bureau  of  Vital  Statistics  was 
provided  for,'  the  first  in  any  southern  state.  During 
these  years,  too,  the  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 
was  urging  its  measure  in  behalf  of  school  suffrage  for 
women,  which  was  enacted  in  1912,^  and  other  school- 
improvement  measures.  They  will,  however,  be  referred 
to  in  another  chapter. 

The  foregoing  statement  is  a  bald  outline  of  the 
legislative  program  to  which  the  Civic  League  made  its 
contribution.  The  original  attack  on  the  problem  of 
play  for  the  children  of  Irishtown  led  to  the  development 
of  the  playground  and  park  system  of  which  Lexington 
is  proud.  It  led  into  many  other  paths  as  well.  "  A  little 
child  shall  lead  them'*  promised  the  prophet  of  old. 
Truly  is  the  promise  fulfilled  in  the  experience  of  every 
honest  person  who  is  willing  to  follow.  Into  every  diffi- 
culty confronting  the  modern  community — poverty, 
vice,  greed,  selfishness,  indifference — into  these  strong- 
holds of  reaction,  lethargy,  and  positive  exploitation 
will  the  pathway  point.  And  Madge  was  clear  that  in  the 
hand  of  the  child  she  could  find  the  clue — and,  having 
found,  she  must  follow! 

To  complete  the  story  we  should  not  only  go  through 
the  efforts  to  secure  the  enactment  of  these  statutes, 
but  suffer  with  her  the  labor  involved  in  obtaining  their 
enforcement.  She  visited  the  places  where  children 
toiled,  and  she  told  their  story.  She  studied  the  records  of 
other  efforts.     She  pleaded  for  co-operation,  she  explained 

*  Acts  of  igio,  chap.  37,  p.  96.     See  Ads  of  igi2,  chap.  24,  p.  117. 

'  Acts  of  1912,  chap.  47,  p.  193.     See  also  Acts  of  1918,  chap.  146,  p.  646. 


90  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

why  it  should  be,  and  then  how  it  was.  She  gave  of  her  own 
and  begged  from  others  the  necessary  funds.  She  hunted 
out  the  people  who  might  be  able  to  do  the  various  jobs 
called  for  under  the  new  laws.  She  helped  those  who 
undertook  the  tasks  to  find  their  way  in  their  new  responsi- 
bilities, and  she  prepared  for  the  next  step  in  advance. 
It  was  impossible  for  her  to  become  accustomed  to 
the  contrast  between  the  protestations  of  an  ostensibly 
Christian  community  that  its  civilization  was  built  on 
the  teaching  of  the  Child  worshiped  of  old  in  a  manger 
and  the  fact  that  so  many  children  were  given  only 
neglect,  cruelty,  and  privation.  And  so  there  was  no 
limit  to  her  efforts  except  that  of  physical  exhaustion. 
The  press  associations,  the  educational  associations,  the 
teachers,  the  judges,  the  women 's  clubs,  the  labor  unions — 
all  were  solicited  to  join  in  this  new  effort  in  behalf  of 
the  children.  And,  then,  when  the  legislative  session  of 
1908  opened,  when  the  laws  to  whose  formulation  and 
urging  she  had  given  so  lavishly  of  her  time  and  effort 
were  to  be  considered,  she  had  again  to  surrender  and  go 
to  the  Southwest  for  recuperation! 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— THE  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

SCHOOL 

....  Build  schoolhouseSy  pay  teachers,  ....  lend  them  your  brains 
— Edward  Denison. 


In  1908  the  Board  of  Education  appropriated  $10,000 
for  the  erection  of  a  building  in  the  West  End.  Compared 
with  expenditures  for  other  buildings,  it  was  not  a  nig- 
gardly grant;  but,  as  has  been  said,  the  superintendent 
had  asked  for  $15,000'  and  had  urged  the  value  of  social 
work  in  the  schools.  He  said  in  his  report  for  191 1,  before 
the  Lincoln  School  was  built: 

Last'  year  the  schools  of  Lexington  were  used  as  social  centers 
in  a  limited  way.  None  of  the  buildings,  save  the  High  School,  is 
adapted  to  the  purpose  either  of  recreation  or  entertainment. 
None  save  school  rooms  could  be  used  and  these  were  always 
crowded  with  interested  parents.  In  these  small  rooms  were 
given  musicals,  lectures,  plays,  etc.  The  interest  that  was  mani- 
fested demonstrated,  that,  with  proper  auditoriums,  the  great 
majority  of  those  who  reside  in  the  several  school  communities 
would  gladly  take  advantage  of  such  opportunities  for  recreation, 
amusement  and  intellectual  improvement. 

I  have  frequently  called  the  attention  of  the  Board  of  Education 
to  the  necessity  of  making  some  provision  for  these  occasions  by 
making  the  auditoriums  of  the  attics  of  the  buildings.  Estimates 
have  shown  that  these  improvements  can  be  made  at  small  cost. 
Certainly  the  cost  of  such  improvements  would  be  nothing  in  com- 
parison to  the  good  that  could  be  accomplished  by  the  use  of  these 
assembly  rooms.    Not  only  could  they  be  used  with  pleasure  and 

'  Annual  Report,  1908,  p.  14. 

91 


92  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

profit  by  the  people,  but  they  would  serve  as  assembly  rooms  for 
the  pupils,  something  that  is  greatly  needed  in  each  school,  and  for 
physical  culture  drills,  etc.^ 

The  use  of  the  school  as  a  social  and  civic  center,  a 
policy  now  widely  advocated,  was  being  urged  in  many 
quarters  then.  Miss  Jane  Addams  at  Hull-House,  Miss 
Mary  McDowell  at  the  University  of  Chicago  Settle- 
ment, Miss  Lillian  Wald  at  the  "House  on  Henry  Street, " 
were  all  experimenting  in  interesting  and  varied  ways. 
Madge  had  persuaded  Miss  Cloud,  who  had  gone  into 
the  work  in  the  beginning  of  1901,  to  go  to  Chicago  for 
suggestions;  and  she  was  informed  as  to  the  various 
devices  used  for  bringing  to  children  in  such  neighbor- 
hoods as  Irishtown  the  things  they  needed — "their 
freedom  and  their  right" — ^but  her  plan  was  different 
from  other  plans.  Miss  Addams  characterizes  it  as  a 
"daring  experiment. '^  It  was  the  plan  of  raising  from 
voluntary  sources  the  sum  needed  to  supplement  the 
public  grant,  giving  this  sum  to  the  public  authority 
and  asking  only  a  share  in  the  control  for  a  period  of 
time  during  which  the  undertaking  might  be  considered 
experimental. 

She  therefore  undertook  to  raise  the  large  sum  of 
$35,cxx)  to  add  to  the  $10,000  granted  by  the  School 
Board  to  make  of  the  school  the  enterprise  she  thought 
it  should  be.  It  was  no  easy  task.  She  begged  of  every- 
body on  every  pretext.  There  'are  760  names  on  the  list 
of  contributors!  She  hunted  out  ex-Kentuckians  and 
demanded  that  they  pay  some  share  of  the  debt  they 
owed  for  being  Kentuckians.  Mr.  T.  Coleman  Du  Pont, 
of  Wilmington,   Delaware;   Mrs.   Emmons  Blaine   and 

^  Annual  Report,  1911,  pp.  17-18. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL  93 

Mrs.  Ogden  Armour,  of  Chicago;  Mr.  N.  D.  Nelson, 
of  New  Orleans,  whose  co-operative  experiment  at 
Le  Clair,  Illinois,  is  well  known;  Mr.  James  R.  Keene; 
Mr.  James  B.  Haggin,  are  a  few  of  the  names  of  those 
who  sent  her  their  tribute  to  her  appeal.  Mr.  Robert 
Todd  Lincoln,  while  not  born  in  Kentucky,  was  only  one 
generation  away  on  both  sides  and  had  many  relatives  in 
Kentucky  and  made  the  first  thousand-dollar  gift. 

She  went  to  Chicago,  where  Miss  Addams  helped 
her  by  going  with  her  and  speaking  for  her,  and  to  New 
York,  to  beg  in  person  from  those  who  did  not  respond 
to  the  written  appeal.  She  held  great  meetings  in  Lexing- 
ton, and  then  when  the  total  had  still  not  been  obtained, 
she  resorted  to  a  "drive." 

The  period  set  for  the  drive  was  a  period  of  nine 
days  from  Monday,  the  fourteenth,  to  Wednesday,  the 
twenty- third,  of  November,  19 10.  It  began  with  a  ban- 
quet, and  wound  up  with  a  meeting  in  the  Auditorium. 

The  ministers  preached  for  it  and  indorsed  it;  a 
member  of  the  Commercial  Club,  Mr.  S.  H.  Clay,  had 
general  charge  with  an  executive  committee  of  men  and 
women.  There  were  150  solicitors,  and  each  day  a 
special  women's  committee  served  for  them  a  luncheon,  at 
which  reports  of  progress  were  made.  Children  marched, 
women  urged,  pretty  girls  invited,  the  sum  was  raised, 
and  the  enterprise  was  assured.  Those  who  recall  that 
time  of  storm  and  stress  will  remember  how  she  did  it 
all — it  is  impossible  to  give  any  idea  of  her  charm,  her 
grace,  her  determination,  her  refusal  to  Hsten  to  any 
pleading  that  it  be  given  up — and  it  was  done.  The 
story  may  in  fact  be  told  largely  in  her  words;  for  in  this, 


94  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

as  in  all  her  efforts  to  raise  money,  she  desired  not  only 
the  gifts  but  the  sympathy  and  understanding  of  the 
donors,  and  so  at  one  of  the  great  meetings,  one  for 
which  Miss  McDowell,  of  Chicago,  had  come  to  Lexington, 
she  set  the  whole  plan  forth  with  all  the  reasons  for  its 
execution : 

The  Civic  League  has  asked  you  here  tonight  to  consider  with 
us  the  plan  for  a  model  public  school  in  the  city  of  Lexington  and 
the  means  by  which  we  are  to  get  it. 

Perhaps  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  realize  that  we  have  need  of 
educational  improvement.  We  have  been  saying  to  ourselves  for 
some  time,  in  the  manner  of  Kentuckians,  that  we  have  one  of  the 
best  pubUc  school  systems  in  the  country,  and  unless  some  one 
insists  that  Kentuckians  look  the  facts  in  the  face  they  are  very 
apt  to  beUeve  just  what  they  say  of  themselves  to  others.  As  a 
State  we  stand  disgracefully  low  in  the  tables  of  illiteracy.  To  the 
dismay  of  our  own  local  community,  it  has  recently  been  shown  that 
in  ten  Blue  Grass  counties,  of  which  Fayette  is  one,  there  are  but  92 
fewer  native  white  illiterates  than  in  the  whole  State  of  Massachu- 
setts, a  State  with  almost  double  the  population  of  Kentucky  and  a 
large  foreign  element. 

In  1907  the  county  of  Fayette,  which  was  spending  over 
$185,000  of  county  revenues,  devoted  but  little  over  $2,000  of  this 
to  her  public  schools.  Since  that  time  we  have  gotten  from  the 
Legislature  a  new'county  school  board  law,  one  of  the  special  objects 
of  which  was  to  bring  about  local  county  taxation  for  the  benefit  of 
schools,'  and  this  year  Fayette  county  will  spend  $4,000  for  her 
schools  while  she  spends  $65,000  for  her  roads.  Now  the  roads  over 
which  the  children  go  to  school  are  important,  but  the  schools  to 
which  they  go  are  likewise  important,  and  the  present  proportion 
of  expenses  simply  indicates  that  our  county  officials,  the  men  who 
are  deciding  the  business  methods  of  our  county,  have  not  at 
present  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  our  schools. 

If  you  should  ask — you  who  are  contentedly  saying  that  we 
have  a  perfect  system  of  schools  in  Lexington — those  who  are  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  schools  about  them,  they  would  not 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL  95 

tell  you  that  any  single  school  in  Lexington  is  a  model.  The  super- 
intendent would  not;  the  members  of  the  board  would  not.  And 
if  you  should  talk  for  five  minutes  to  a  principal  or  teacher 
showing  any  intelligent  interest  or  knowledge  of  the  subject,  he  or 
she  would  Begin  to  pour  out  to  you  a  list  of  the  things- needed  for 
the  schools. 

Personally  I  do  not  believe  that  we  shall  ever  have  model 
schools,  as  good  schools  even  as  the  money  that  is  spent  for  them 
should  provide,  while  we  divide  our  community  into  two  classes, 
the  women  who  are  doing  the  thinking  about  educational  matters 
and  the  men  who  are  doing  the  voting.  Having  started  out  seventy 
years  ago  by  granting  the  first  school  suffrage  to  women  of  any 
English-speaking  people,  Kentucky,  by  a  final  stroke  at  her  last 
Legislature,  contentedly  reduced  herself  to  an  oriental  position  by 
declaring  that  men  only  were  fit  for  school  suffrage.  It  is  rather 
singular  that  this  reactionary  attitude  on  the  part  of  Kentucky 
men  has  gone  on  side  by  side  with  the  most  remarkable  and  impor- 
tant development  of  public  interest  in  educational  affairs  that  Ken- 
tucky has  seen  in  the  seventy  years  past. 

And  this  movement  has  been  conceived  and  executed  and 
financed  to  a  large  extent  by  Kentucky  women.  Of  all  the  ridicu- 
lous political  disabilities  that  men  have  ever  put  upon  women  the 
most  ridiculous  is  to  debar  them  from  a  share  in  the  control  of  the 
public  schools — to  say  to  them  on  the  one  hand,  **  Women,  your 
glorious  mission  is  to  bear  and  to  rear  children,"  and  on  the  other 
hand  to  say  to  them,  ''When  those  children  are  six  years  old — or 
four  years  old,  now  that  we  have  kindergartens — they  must  go  into 
the  public  schools,  and  there  you  may  not  go  with  them.  How  the 
public  schools  are  conducted  is  a  matter  for  men,  not  for  women. 
Mothers  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  education  of  their  children. " 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  even  debarred  as  they  are  from  any  author- 
ity, the  mothers  of  this  community  know  more  and  care  more  about 
what  is  going  on  in  the  public  schools  than  do  the  fathers.  A 
mother  came  to  me  the  other  day,  wanting  me  to  look  into  a  matter 
in  the  public  schools  which  she  thought  very  wrong  and  to  get  it 
remedied.  It  was  a  thing  about  which  I  had  never  thought,  but  I 
have  thought  of  it  since  and  I  have  asked  people  in  this  and  other 


96  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

communities  whose  experience  is  much  wider  than  mine,  and  I  am 
convinced  that  that  mother  was  right. 

I  told  her  that  I  was  not  on  the  School  Board,  that  I  was  as 
devoid  of  any  power  in  the  matter  as  was  she,  and  when  she  left 
I  decided  that  this  hard  job  was  perhaps  not  my  job,  and  I  wrote 
to  her  and  suggested  that  she  have  her  husband,  the  father  of  the 
boy,  talk  with  the  members  of  the  School  Board  about  it. 

Now  that  was  a  month  or  so  ago  and  I  do  not  believe  that  any- 
thing has  been  done.  I  mention  it  simply  to  show  you  that  there 
is  a  difference  in  women's  standard  and  men's  standard  of  what  the 
pubhc  school  should  be,  and  I  believe  that  if  we  want  to  bring  up 
our  children  in  the  best  way  we  should  be  getting  the  judgment  and 
advice  of  the  mother  sex  instead  of  ignoring  it.  We  should  have 
women  on  our  School  Boards  and  women  as  principals  and  women 
as  inspectors  ''nosing"  about  in  our  schools  and  finding  out  the 
little  apparently  insignificant  things  that  are  perhaps  the  things  of 
vital  importance  that  should  be  changed  and  bettered. 

We  had  an  example  the  other  day  of  the  difference  in  the 
male  and  female  standard.  A  stranger  came  into  our  midst,  a 
woman,  and  she  went  into  the  cellars  and  basements  of  our  pubhc 
schools,  and  she  did  not  like  them,  and  a  few  days  later  the  gentlemen 
of  our  School  Board  went  around  and  looked  at  them  and  they  said 
they  were  all  right.  Now  even  male  janitors  could  have  made  a 
change  in  those  cellars  and  basements  in  the  two  or  three  days 
intervening  between  visits,  but  if  the  men  of  our  School  Board 
had  gone  with  Mrs.  Crane  I  think  their  views  and  hers  about 
the  conditions  of  those  cellars  and  basements  would  have  been 
different. 

Our  men  have  minds  above  cellars.  It  takes  a  woman  who  has 
had  herself  to  see  to  cleaning  and  whitewashing  to  know  how  a 
cellar  or  basement  ought  to  be.  If  you  do  not  believe  it  I  suggest 
that  some  of  you  women  go  and  look  at  the  cellars  of  some  of  the 
most  prominent  business  houses  in  our  city,  even  those  within  the 
fire  limits  and  see  if  you  think  they  are  right.  We  can  not  expect 
men  who  have  looked  down  upon  housekeeping  for  many  centuries 
and  considered  it  a  menial  task  fit  only  for  women  to  know  very 
much  about  it. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL  97 

Now  if  we  are  going  to  have  a  model  school  in  Lexington  what 
do  we  mean  by  it  ?  In  the  first  place  we  mean  a  school  in  which 
teachers  are  chosen  for  merit  and  efficiency;  a  school  in  which 
there  are  provided  for  our  children  the  very  best  teachers  that  can 
be  obtained  for  the  money  to  be  laid  out,  no  matter  where  we  go 
to  get  those  teachers;  a  school  in  which  a  teacher  who  is  tioing  her 
best  knows  that  she  will  hold  her  place  while  she  deserves  it  and 
does  not  have  the  Damocles  sword  of  an  annual  election,  for  which 
all  sorts  of  wire  pulling  are  necessary,  hanging  over  her  head;  a 
school  in  which  the  curriculum  is  the  result  of  the  careful  thought 
of  big  minds;  in  which  discipline  is  gentle  but  absolutely  firm,  in 
which  book  teaching  is  of  the  highest  type;  and  in  which  that 
indescribable  process  of  character  building  is  going  on  constantly 
from  the  influence  of  a  high  type  of  men  and  women  in  charge  of 
the  children. 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  these  subtler  most  important  elements  of 
the  model  school.  We  all  have  already  our  ideals  of  the  perfect 
school  of  the  old-fashioned  type;  the  only  difficulty  is  to  live  up  to 
them,  to  attain  them.  The  things  that  I  am  going  to  dwell  upon 
are  very  tangible,  and  material,  and  much  easier  to  obtain. 

Our  model  school  must  have  in  it  thorough  equipment  for 
hand  training  in  every  grade.  It  must  have  in  it  certain  physical 
equipment  and  space  for  neighborhood  uses,  some  time  back  con- 
sidered out  of  the  province  of  the  public  school,  and  it  is  these 
things  that  I  want  to  talk  about. 

There  can  be  no  longer  any  question  about  the  practical  and 
commercial  value  of  education.  In  Asia  where  the  mass  of  people 
are  wholly  illiterate  the  average  daily  wage  of  the  workman  is  3 
cents.  In  Russia  it  is  14  cents,  in  the  United  States  48  cents,  and 
in  Massachusetts  87  cents,  and  everywhere  there  is  a  direct  relation 
between  the  amount  spent  for  education  and  the  average  earning 
capacity  of  the  people.  For  every  dollar  earned  per  inhabitant  in 
Kentucky,  Indiana  earns  $1.57.  When  we  go  further  to  the 
application  of  the  latest  educational  discovery,  the  discovery 
that  it  is  wasteful  to  try  to  train  the  mind  alone,  but  that  you 
must  train  the  hands  and  body  with  it,  the  illustration  is  even 
more  striking. 


98  MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

In  Russia  only  8  per  cent  of  the  population  have  any  education. 
In  Germany  no  child  is  allowed  to  escape  education,  and  there  is  a 
most  complete  system  for  the  teaching  of  agriculture,  beginning 
with  the  school  garden  in  the  elementary  school  and  going  through 
the  higher  agricultural  colleges.  In  Russia  the  average  yield  per 
acre  is  ju^t  one- third  of  what  it  is  in  Germany. 

Twenty  years  ago  Denmark  was  one  of  the  poorest  nations  in 
Europe.  Now  in  the  per  capita  wealth  of  its  people  it  is,  with  one 
exception,  the  richest.  In  general  distribution  of  wealth  it  stands 
first.  This  is  because  Denmark  inaugurated  and  carried  out  a 
wonderful  system  of  pubHc  schools  with  industrial  training.  Her 
rural  schools  include  dairying,  poultry-raising,  fruit-growing  and 
all  forms  of  agriculture  in  their  curriculum.  The  peasants  of 
Denmark  have  taxed  themselves  rich. 

Since  the  landing  of  the  pilgrim  fathers  Massachusetts  has  had 
an  idea  of  public  education  that  has  been  almost  a  religion  with  her, 
and  now  she  has  advanced  her  conception  of  what  education  is.  In 
1906  she  created  a  Commission  on  Industrial  Training  throughout 
that  state  similar  to  the  system  used  in  Germany,  which  when  com- 
pleted will  be  an  object  lesson  to  every  state  in  the  Union.  In 
spite  of  her  barren  soil,  rocky  New  England  farms,  her  bitter 
climate,  her  lack  of  natural,  physical  resources,  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts has  held  her  own  in  all  these  years  and  has  produced 
citizens  of  a  higher  earning  capacity  than  any  other  state  in  the 
Union,  and  now  she  has  decided  to  still  further  maintain  her  trade 
supremacy  in  competition  with  other  countries.  She  has  decided 
that  her  own  home  markets  shall  not  be  flooded  with  things  ''made 
in  Germany."  And  how  is  she  going  to  maintain  this  trade 
supremacy,  this  commercial  prosperity  ?  Some  time  back  she  was 
putting  $10,000,000  a  year  into  the  education  of  her  children.  She 
is  going  to  put  more  than  that.  She  is  going  to  hold  her  business 
by  educating  her  young. 

I  want  you  to  realize  a  little  how  other  communities  have  waked 
up  to  the  commercial  and  moral  value  of  hand  training  in  the  public 
schools,  and  want  to  refer  to  the  way  in  which  most  of  the  great 
advances  in  educational  matters  have  come  from  the  initiative  and 
generosity  of  private  individuals.    It  is  impossible  to  ask  that  any 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL  99 

community  shall  act  as  a  whole  through  its  public  representatives, 
until  after  there  have  been  many  individuals  who  are  ready  to  act 
privately  to  attain  a  desired  end. 

In  Boston,  Mrs.  Quincy  Shaw  maintained  the  kindergartens  for 
many  years  before  they  were  taken  over  by  the  public  authorities. 
She  maintained  the  Lloyd  Training  School  until  manual  training 
was  adopted  into  the  public  school  system,  and  in  city  after  city 
we  see  this  same  thing  happening. 

At  one  of  the  monthly  meetings  of  the  Commercial  Club  of 
Chicago  in  1882  Mr.  Marshall  Field  arose  and  said  that  he  would 
give  $20,000  to  start  a  Manual  Training  School  in  that  city  if  the 
other  members  of  the  club  would  bring  the  fund  up  to  $100,000,  and 
this  was  promptly  done.  Within  a  year  the  land  was  bought  and 
the  school  building  begun. 

That  Manual  Training  School  accomplished  its  mission. 
Through  its  influence  manual  training  was  introduced  into  the  pub- 
lic school  system  of  Chicago  and  of  several  other  cities,  and  finally 
in  1907  the  school  was  made  over  by  the  men  of  the  Commercial 
Club  to  the  University  of  Chicago.  The  men  of  the  Commercial 
Club  simply  decided  that  the  hand  training  of  the  youth  of  Chicago 
was  at  that  time  the  most  important  business  matter  before  them, 
and  the  glorious  history  of  their  sustained  interest  in  the  movement 
is  related  in  a  single  sentence,  that  in  all  the  years  of  the  existence 
of  this  Manual  Training  School  *'  the  Commercial  Club  constituted 
an  elastic  and  thoroughly  satisfactory  endowment  fund." 

Our  own  community  has  not  as  yet  contracted  the  habit  of 
public  giving.  Sometimes  in  Louisville  when  I  have  looked  at  the 
magnificent  Manual  Training  High  School,  the  gift  of  one  citizen, 
and  at  the  building  in  which  the  charity  organization  society  has 
its  headquarters,  the  gift  of  another;  and  at  the  beautiful  drinking 
fountains  and  gateways  and  bridges  on  the  streets  and  in  the  parks, 
I  have  wished  that  that  contagion  of  public  spirit  might  reach  this 
Blue  Grass  region.  At  present  the  attitude  of  many  of  us  toward 
the  state  or  the  city  seems  to  be  to  "do"  it,  to  give  as  little  as  we 
can  and  to  get  as  much.  It  seems  sometimes  as  if  we  had  forgotten 
that  this  government  was  our  own  government  and  that  what  we 
gave  to  the  public  we  were,  after  aU,  but  giving  to  ourselves. 


lOO        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Aside  from  the  material  thing  to  be  gained  in  this  model  school 
about  which  we  are  talking,  would  it  not  be  worth  while  for  the 
citizens  of  Lexington  to  give  to  it  simply  to  get  themselves  in  the 
habit  of  helping  on  our  public  administration  instead  of  continually 
abusing  it  ?  I  am  not  saying  that  we  should  not  hold  our  public 
officers  to  a  high  standard,  to  a  much  higher  standard  than  we  have 
ever  held  them,  but  we  shall  never  do  it  except  by  feehng  ourselves 
a  keen  and  intense  interest  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  and 
when  we  feel  that  interest,  we  shall  be  ready  to  sacrifice  something 
ourselves;  we  shall  be  ready  to  give  of  our  thought  and  our  energy — 
yea,  even  of  the  money  out  of  our  pockets. 

The  plan  which  we  are  proposing  to  you  to  attain  this  model 
school  is  on  the  Carnegie  order.  It  is  a  pooling  of  pubHc  money  and 
private  money  for  an  institution  to  be  maintained  from  public 
funds.  The  School  Board  has  already  voted  $10,000  for  the  school, 
the  limit  of  what  it  can  possibly  vote  until  there  is  a  new  bond  issue. 
The  Civic  League  is  asking  that  $20,000  be  added  to  this  $10,000  by 
private  subscription.  The  appeal  has  not  yet  been  made  except 
to  a  few  persons  in  this  community,  but  already  some  have  volun- 
teered— ^we  have  one  donation  in  four  figures  and  one  in  three — 
outside  people  who  are  interested  in  advancing  this  newer  form  of 
education  have  made  gifts  and  about  one-fifth  of  the  $20,000  is 
subscribed.  And  in  Virginia  lately  under  the  working  of  a  new  law 
that  has  given  a  tremendous  impetus  to  school  building,  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  world,  they  have  found  that  when  you  add  a 
splendid  school  building  the  tax  rate  does  not  have  to  go  up  to 
supply  the  increased  maintenance,  for  the  value  of  property  about 
the  school  building  rises,  so  that  the  assessment  takes  care  of  the 
increased  maintenance. 

Another  thing  that  we  want  our  model  school  to  give  besides 
hand  training  is  the  opportunity  for  community  use.  It  is  slowly 
dawning  upon  us  that  the  public  schools  belong  to  the  public,  and 
that  they  have  the  right  to  use  them  both  in  school  hours  and  out. 
Of  all  the  wicked  extravagance  the  most  wicked,  it  seems  to  me, 
is  to  tax  people — and  poor  people,  for  every  landlord,  no  matter 
how  disgraceful  the  hovel  which  he  rents,  makes  his  tenants  pay 
the  taxes  in  rental  which  he  fixes — to  tax  poor  people  for  the 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         loi 

purpose  of  erecting  costly  school  buildings  and  then  to  allow  these 
school  buildings  to  stand  idle  165  days  out  of  the  year  and  19  hours 
out  of  every  24  of  the  days  they  are  in  use.  While  the  people  have 
need  of  them  for  every  sort  of  use  our  school  buildings  are  closed 
and  idle  for  half  of  the  afternoon,  for  all  of  the  evenings,  on  Satur- 
days and  on  Sundays  and  through  three  months  of  the  summer 
while  our  janitors  are  taking  the  rest  cure.  And  there  is  no  place 
for  our  people,  whose  homes  are  too  small  for  more  than  domestic 
use,  to  meet  with  their  fellowmen  as  every  rightly  constructed 
human  being  wants  to  do. 

The  men  must  go  to  the  saloons  for  their  political  meetings. 
The  young  people,  if  they  want  to  dance  or  to  enjoy  themselves  in 
other  ways,  must  go  to  the  skating  rinks  and  the  cheap  dance  halls 
and  the  five-cent  theaters;  and  they  go  unchaperoned,  and  there 
are  often  deplorable  consequences.  Then  we  go  to  work  and  in  our 
juvenile  courts  and  our  reform  schools  we  spend  the  money  that 
we  should  have  spent  to  keep  these  young  people  from  going  wrong. 
And  the  pity  of  it  is  that  a  broken  thing  mended  is  never  what  a 
whole  thing  might  have  been,  even  if  we  succeed  in  mending  and  not 
in  further  scarring  and  disfiguring  the  young  character  which  is 
handled  so  roughly  in  police  courts  and  jails  and  state  insti- 
tutions. 

All  over  this  country  cities  are  gradually  waking  up  to  the  fact 
that  Jacob  Riis  stated  when  he  said  that  the  public  school  should 
be  the  social  center  of  the  community.  When  I  tried  to  tell  in 
Chicago  what  our  School  Board  and  our  Civic  League  wanted  to  do 
in  a  public  school  in  Lexington,  Miss  Jane  Addams  was  willing  to 
give  of  her  precious  time  to  go  with  me  and  indorse  the  project; 
because,  as  she  said,  the  social  settlement  can  never  do  all  that 
should  be  done  of  this  kind  in  the  cities.  They  are  only  the  out- 
posts, the  experiment  stations.  One  of  the  things  that  they  must 
specially  point  the  way  to,  is  the  community  use  of  the  pubUc 
school  buildings. 

In  New  York  City  twenty  years  ago  a  group  of  young  long- 
shoremen who  lived  neair  the  Brooklyn  bridge  and  were  known  as 
"The  Buttermilk  Club"  because  they  revolted  against  the  vul- 
garity and  the  coarse  temptations  of  the  saloon,  their  only  meeting 


I02         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

place,  applied  through  a  friend,  an  influential  woman  then  on  the 
School  Board,  for  the  use  of  a  room  in  one  of  the  public  school 
buildings  to  hold  their  meetings.  The  New  York  School  Board 
refused.  They  dared  not  set  such  a  precedent;  it  might  prove  a 
most  expensive  thing. 

And  now  what  is  the  New  York  School  Board  doing  ?  It  is 
spending  thousands  of  dollars  a  year  to  provide  in  its  school  build- 
ings public  lectures  free  to  the  people.  It  is  opening  its  school 
buildings  after  school  hours  winter  and  summer,  night  and  dayy  to 
the  use,  the  uplift,  the  education  and  the  recreation  simply  of  old 
and  young  who  dwell  about  those  school  buildings.  In  the  summer 
time  it  is  running  vacation  schools  for  children  in  which  never  a 
book  is  used,  where  the  subjects  taught  are  nature  work  and  draw- 
ing, and  clay  modeling  and  basketry,  and  the  wood  work,  and  cook- 
ing, and  sewing,  and  embroidery,  and  millinery  even,  and  the  only 
book  subject  taught  is  a  little  history  or  civics,  and  this  is  taught 
not  out  of  books  but  orally  and  by  delightful  picnic  excursions 
to  historic  points  in  New  York  City  and  in  the  neighborhood. 
And  it  is  maintaining  play-schools  which  are  only  kindergartens 
enlarged,  and  playgrounds — over  a  hundred  of  them — on  mother 
earth,  where  the  land  can  be  had,  and  where  it  can  not,  in 
basements  and  on  roofs  of  school  buildings.  And  on  these  roof 
gardens  of  these  school  buildings  there  are  sand  piles  for  the  little 
ones  to  dig  in  and  spades  and  pails  to  do  the  digging  with.  There 
are  bands  of  music  playing  through  the  long  hot  summer  evenings 
and  the  old  people  are  listening  there  to  the  national  songs  of  this, 
their  new  country  and  to  the  old  songs  which  they  knew  in  the  old 
country,  and  the  young  people  are  dancing  to  that  music.  And  all 
this,  mind  you,  is  being  supplied  by  educational  funds.  It  is 
coming  out  of  the  money  that  used  to  be  dedicated  to  blue  backed 
spellers  and  birch  rods,  to  the  misery  and  unhappiness  of  childhood. 
Now  we  have  learned  that  the  happy  child  can  acquire  even  book 
learning  twice  as  fast  as  the  unhappy  child,  and  we  have  learned 
that  the  young  person  who  is  given  a  natural  and  healthful  outlet 
for  that  universal  instinct  of  youth,  the  desire  for  joy  and  physical 
activity  and  for  social  intercourse  with  his  fellows,  is  likely  to  make 
a  good  citizen  instead  of  a  bad  one.    We  know  that  all  the 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         103 

social  evils  we  have  to  contend  with  practically  are  the  out- 
growth, not  of  the  hours  of  work,  but  of  the  hours  of  play;  and  that 
it  is  these  hours  that  we  must  look  to  if  we  want  a  healthy  and  a 
moral  and  an  efficient  people. 

And  in  other  cities  than  New  York,  where  the  school  problem 
is  not  so  big  a  one,  they  have  gone  even  further.  There  are  many 
towns  where  the  vacation  schools  and  the  playgrounds,  once  sup- 
ported by  Woman's  Clubs  or  Civic  Leagues,  or  by  private  indi- 
viduals, are  now  taken  over  by  School  Boards  and  are  a  regular  part 
of  the  school  work.  Gymnasia,  and  pubHc  baths,  and  swimming 
pools,  and  clubs  for  young  people  and  old,  Hbrary  stations,  and  all 
sorts  of  cla  sses  have  gotten  lodged  in  the  school  buildings  never 
to  go  out.  And  the  manual  training  has  been  developed  until  there 
is  not  only  manual  training  from  the  kindergarten  through  the 
High  School  maintained  by  the  School  Boards,  but  there  are  trade 
schools  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  teaching  boys  and  girls  to  make 
an  honest  living. 

And  strangest  of  ^11,  in  some  places,  as  Miss  McDowell  has  told 
you,  there  is  actually  a  social  settlement  worker — we  have  to  call 
her  this,  for  it  is  the  best  way  to  describe  her — ^who  has  her  head- 
quarters in  the  school  building.  She  is  helping  the  medical  inspec- 
tor to  weigh  and  measure  children,  and  to  examine  suspicious 
throats  and  eyes;  she  is  then  following  up  the  cases  of  the  sick 
and  defective  children  into  their  own  homes  and  becoming  a  friend 
of  the  family  and  helping  to  remedy  the  conditions  that  have  pro- 
duced the  illness.  She  is  giving  out  the  little  milk  bottles  of 
pasteurized  milk  furnished  by  the  Milk  Commission,  to  take  the 
place  of  the  cheap  candies  and  pickles  for  which  the  pennies  of  the 
children  formerly  went  at  lunch  time.  She  is  cheering  on  the  bath 
matron  in  her  task  of  washing  twenty  or  thirty  baby  children  a  day, 
or  of  marshalling  the  relays  of  older  children  who  go  down  for  the 
shower  baths  every  twenty  minutes  of  the  school  day.  She  is 
running  clubs  and  classes  and  even  providing  evening  entertain- 
ments for  the  older  people. 

Now  the  model  school  we  want  in  Lexington  is  to  be  built  in  the 
West  End  simply  because  that  is  the  next  school  we  are  to  build. 
By  and  by  we   want   such   a  model  school  for  every  school  in 


I04         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Lexington.  Surely  it  will  not  be  many  years  before  our  people 
demand  that  every  school  building  in  Lexington  for  white  or  for 
colored  be  equipped  for  manual  training  work,  so  that  this  may  be 
given  to  all  our  boys  and  girls  and  not  just  to  an  occasional  few  who 
are  picked  out  and  sent  from  their  school  to  the  manual  training 
center.  And  after  we  get  these  schools  all  up  to  the  standard  we 
are  now  setting,  you  may  rest  assured  that  somebody  will  come 
along  with  a  standard  of  a  school  building  way  in  advance  of  any  we 
have  now;  and  then  we  will  begin  aiming  for  that.  One's  wagon 
should  always  be  hitched  to  a  star. 

I  believe  I  can  tell  you  best  what  we  need  in  all  of  these  model 
schools  we  are  to  have,  by  telling  you  a  little  of  the  history  of  the 
school  in  the  West  End,  and  why  we  want  the  things  in  it  that  we 
do  want.  Seven  years  ago  the  Woman's  Club  and  the  Civic  League 
started  a  little  playground  in  what  is  commonly  known  as  Irish- 
town  on  a  lot  loaned  to  us  by  Mr.  Richard  Stoll.  The  second  year 
his  property  had  been  sold  and  we  could  not  get  it  for  a  playground, 
and  so  we  started  a  little  vacation  school  with  cooking,  and  sewing 
and  out-door  kindergarten  in  a  slip  of  a  yard,  and  sand  piles,  and 
swings,  and  see-saws,  and  basket  ball,  and  croquet.  Then  we  went 
to  the  School  Board  and  showed  them  that  in  a  list  of  80  children 
of  kindergarten  and  primary  age  but  four  were  even  registered  up 
town  and  they  were  not  attending  school.  We  showed  them  that 
there  were  children  of  14  and  15  who  could  neither  read  nor  write 
and  that  the  public  school  system  was  passing  over  the  heads  of 
these  children,  who  really  needed  it  most.  The  School  Board 
started  a  kindergarten  with  our  little  playground  instructor,  Miss 
Betsy  Cloud,  in  charge — ^which  is  about  the  best  thing  that  has 
ever  happened  to  that  end  of  town — ^and  to  that  kindergarten  the 
School  Board  has  added  one  thing  after  another. 

There  is  a  school  now  of  150  pupils  and  one  grade  was  lost  this 
fall  simply  because  the  children  could  not  be  accommodated  in  the 
funny  little  school-rooms  that  have  been  made  out  of  the  two  con- 
verted dwelling  houses  that  are  the  school.  And  we  are  not  pushing 
the  School  Board  any  longer  about  this  West  End  School.  They  are 
pushing  us,  and  right  now  they  are  eager  to  build  and  we  are  begging 
for  time  that  we  may  try  to  raise  a  little  more  money. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         105 

For  seven  years  we  have  had  a  beautiful  vision  of  what  the  new 
school  building  in  that  section  was  going  to  be  and  how  it  would 
have  in  it  a  kitchen,  a  carpenter  shop  and  a  laundry  with  stationary 
wash  tubs  where  the  girls  might  learn  the  fine  art  of  laundry  work 
and  where  the  mothers  might  bring  their  washing  out  of  school 
hours,  as  they  do  to  the  municipal  laundries  in  the  European  cities; 
of  how  it  would  have  a  gymnasium  and  play-nasium  and  shower 
baths  for  the  use  of  young  and  old  alike  and  a  swimming  pool;  per- 
haps a  little  room  that  might  be  used  for  a  library  and  a  clubroom; 
and  either  an  assembly  hall  or  a  kindergarten  room  so  large  that  by 
putting  funeral  chairs  into  it  we  could  on  short  notice  convert  it  in 
time  into  an  assembly  hall.  And  if  we  can  not  afiford  a  separate 
assembly  hall  we  want  a  stage  at  the  end  of  the  kindergarten  room 
where  the  piano  and  the  cupboards  for  the  kindergarten  work  may 
go,  which  you  see  is  really  an  economy  of  space,  and  a  teacher's 
room  to  one  side  of  it  where  a  sick  child  may  be  taken  or  a  business 
matter  gone  over  with  the  principal  in  school  hours,  and  which  in 
the  evening  may  be  converted  into  that  fascinating  place  where 
wigs  are  put  on  and  eyebrows  are  blackened  and  ready-made 
expressions  created  by  the  fine  hand  of  the  artist — a  green  room. 
For  the  children  who  read  and  learn  and  play  Shakespeare  and 
Schiller  in  their  youth  are  going  to  have  tastes  above  Anna  Held 
and  "  The  Merry  Widow  "  and  the  five-cent  theater  when  they  grow 
up.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages  knew  well 
the  educational  value  of  the  stage,  and  we  are  beginning  to  learn 
it  again,  largely  through  the  appalling  effects  of  using  it  as  a  place 
to  propagate  low  and  sensual  tastes  rather  than  noble  ideals. 

We  like  to  claim  that  the  manual  training  in  our  public  schools 
grew  out  of  the  humble  little  work  started  in  the  West  End  School; 
and  that  the  playground  and  park  movement  grew  out  of  that. 
And  we  believe  now  that  if  we  can  open  there  a  model  school  which 
the  board  will  allow  the  superintendent  to  use  as  a  sort  of  experi- 
ment station  where  the  curriculum  may  be  loosened  and  adapted 
to  the  model  set  by  the  School  of  Education  in  Chicago,  the  influ- 
ence of  the  school  in  the  West  End  will  go  not  only  through  all 
the  schools  of  Lexington  eventually,  but  through  all  the  schools  of 
Central  Kentucky.    And  even  further,  for  no  Kentucky  movement 


io6        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

has  ever  yet  hid  its  light  under  a  bushel;  and  we  will  see  that  there  is 
plenty  of  free  space  in  the  newspapers  to  proclaim  our  shining 
example  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  state. 

In  the  seven  years  that  we  have  been  in  the  West  End  we  have 
seen  boys  go  to  the  penitentiary  and  girls  go  wrong  in  one  way  or 
another  for  the  lack,  we  believe,  of  being  taught  in  the  school  to 
use  their  hands  to  make  an  honest  living,  and  of  being  given  some 
outlet  for  social  intercourse  under  proper  conditions.  And  the 
things  we  have  seen  there,  you  could  have  seen  in  many  other  parts 
of  town  if  you  had  only  watched  for  them  closely. 

The  school  we  are  planning  to  build  will  be  fed  from  the  section 
known  as  Irishtown  and  from  Davis  Bottom  and  the  territory 
extending  over  to  the  tobacco  factories  and  the  Southern  depot 
and  from  the  Spiegel  Heights  and  from  the  new  and  growing 
section  beyond  the  Cincinnati  Southern  tracks  that  cross  the 
Versailles  road.  The  lot  picked  out  is  in  the  very  center  of  this 
district.  The  building  must  be  so  constructed  that  it  may  be 
added  on  to  from  year  to  year. 

Sometimes  we  have  gotten  discouraged  with  our  work  in  the 
West  End.  It  seemed  as  if  there  were  but  little  results.  But 
when  we  remember  that  for  seven  years  through  the  school  and  the 
playground,  winter  and  summer,  there  have  been  with  these 
children  every  day  women  of  refinement  and  high  character  who 
are  teaching  them  not  only  what  is  in  the  books  but  all  the  little 
unconscious  things  that  go  to  make  up  a  good  man  or  a  good  woman 
we  must  know  that  the  work  has  not  been  in  vain.  And,  however 
hard  it  is,  however  exacting,  we  know  too  that  those  children  are 
worthy  of  it.  I  have  seen  them  sitting  with  their  bare  little  feet 
under  the  kindergarten  tables  and  their  heads  bowed  over  them, 
saying  the  grace  that  the  teachers  have  taught  them: 

"Father,  we  thank  thee  for  the  night. 
And  for  the  blessed  morning  light; 
For  rest  and  food  and  loving  care; 
And  all  that  makes  the  world  so  fair. " 

And  I  have  said  to  myself,  "  those  children  have  a  right,  just  as 
your  children  or  my  children  have,  just  as  every  child  in  the  world 


THE  OUT-DOOR  CLASS 


THE  GYMNASlUxM 

The  Gymnasium  classes  are  held  in  the  Assembly  Room  named  by  the  Board  ot  Education 
for  Major  McDowell.     She  called  the  room  the  "pulsing  heart  of  the  neighborhood." 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         107 

has,  to  rest  and  food  and  loving  care  and  all  that  makes  the 
world  so  fair."  And  I  haye  said  to  myself:  "When  we  make  our 
school  building  here  we  must  build  one  thing  in  this  section  that  is 
fair,  that  is  dignified  and  noble,  and  that  shall  serve  its  ends  not 
only  for  usefulness  but  for  an  inspiration  of  neatness,  order  and 
beauty  to  the  whole  community. " 

Isn't  it  a  vision  worth  waiting  for  and  working  for,  and  giving 
to  and  even  worth  begging  for  ?    Will  you  help  us  to  get  it  ?^ 

When  the  money  had  been  raised,  it  v^as  given  to  the 
school  authorities  and  accepted  by  them  under  an  arrange- 
ment that  it  would  be  administered  by  a  joint  committee 
of  the  League  and  of  the  Board  and  that  the  League 
would  for  ten  years  direct  the  out-of-school  activities. 

After  that  there  were  the  plans  to  decide  upon,  the 
contracts  to  be  let,  and  the  building  operations  to  be 
supervised.  Work  was  begun  in  September,  191 1,  and 
the  cornerstone  was  laid  on  December  7,  191 1.  She 
described   the    exercises   as    "Sunshine   in   December." 

We  looked  across  the  heights  of  High  street  or  the  Versailles 
road,  ....  across  to  the  huddled  roofs  of  the  one-story  cottages 

that  are  Irishtown And  there  were  the  children  winding 

their  way  through  Willard  street,  an  almost  impassable  lane  in 
winter,  across  the  hollow  and  up  to  the  site  of  the  great  new 

building As  we  looked  we  felt  that  the  picture  of  the  Httle 

struggling,  climbing  procession  was  a  good  omen  for  the  new  school. 
The  half -finished  pile  seemed  a  goal  of  inspiration  and  happy  effort, 
beginning  to  lift  its  head  in  the  sunshine  of  that  bright  December 
afternoon.^ 

The  building  was  dedicated  on  November  30,  191 2, 
and  the  open-air  school,  to  which  anemic  children  came 
from  two  other  schools,  was  opened  on  St.  Patrick's 
Day,   1 913.    When  the  question  of  a  name  arose,  the 

»  Lexington  Leader ,  May  30,  1909. 

^  Lexington  Herald,  December  10,  191 1. 


io8        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Board  proposed  her  name;  but  she  rejected  the  suggestion 
and  asked  that  the  school  she  had  builded  be  given  the 
name  of  one  whom  she  thought  the  greatest  Kentuckian. 
Her  father's  name  was  by  later  action  of*  the  Board 
perpetuated  in  the  great  assembly  hall  "in  which  the 
children  play/' 

In  1 914  she  was. asked  to  describe  the  work  of  the 
school  at  the  National  Conference  of  Social  Work  meet- 
ing in  Memphis.  The  account  of  the  work  as  it  had  then 
developed  can  again  be  given  in  her  words: 

In  the  heart  of  the  Blue  Grass,  in  a  poor  section  of  the  city 
of  Lexington,  a  little  over  twelve  years  ago  a  playground  was 
opened  by  the  Civic  League  and  the  Woman's  Club,  Lexington 
organizations.  Playgrounds  had  been  started  then  in  only  two 
other  southern  cities,  Louisville  and  New  Orleans.  The  Lexington 
playground  abounded  in  local  color  and  it  was  unique;  it  was 
started  in  the  shadow  of  a  distillery,  and  out  of  it  has  grown,  as 
education  always  should  grow  from  play,  a  "model  school"  as  it  is 
still  affectionately  known  by  those  who  worked  to  bring  it  about. 


After  the  second  summer  of  the  playground  which  had  devel- 
oped into  a  vacation  school  with  cooking  classes,  with  out-of-door 
sewing  classes  and  kindergarten,  the  Civic  League  went  to  the 
School  Board,  showed  them  that  the  public  school  system  was  pass- 
ing over  the  heads  of  the  children  of  this  neighborhood  who  needed 
it  most,  and  induced  them  to  start  a  public  kindergarten  in  Irish- 
town.  To  this  kindergarten  one  grade  was  added  after  another. 
The  Civic  League  kept  the  playground  going  in  the  summer,  a  little 
manual  training  and  evening  recreation  in  winter,  and  always  the 
men  and  women  of  the  Civic  League  kept  working  for  the  "model 
school"  which  had  then  shaped  itseff  in  their  brains  as  the  kind  of 
public  school  that  Irishtown  and  Davis  Bottom  and  Spiegel  Heights 
and  all  that  contiguous  section  needed.  And  now  there  stands  in 
the  place  of  the  one-room  kindergarten  the  Abraham  Lincoln 
School,  that  is  both  a  public  school  and  a  social  settlement,  of 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE—LINCOLN  SCHOOL         109 

which  Dr.  Earl  Barnes  of  Philadelphia  had  written:  ''I  have 
never  seen  a  piece  of  social  work  where  the  combination  of 
personal  and  public  support,  together  with  the  general  aim  and 
purpose,  appealed  to  me  so  powerfully  as  in  your  school. " 

The  School  Board,  urged  by  the  Civic  League,  set  aside  ten 
thousand  dollars  for  a  school  in  the  "West  End,'*  all  that  could  be 
spared  from  a  bond  issue  that  had  to  build  other  schools  for  white 
and  colored  children.  The  Civic  League  set  out  to  raise  the  rest, 
and  has  now  turned  over  to  the  School  Board  a  plant  that  has  cost 
over  forty-five  thousand  dollars.  The  League  is  still  at  work,  for 
the  grounds  are  yet  to  be  graded  and  surfaced  and  planted,  the 
playground  laid  out,  a  retaining  wall  built  and  other  details  com- 
pleted. The  money  was  raised  by  private  subscriptions  at  home 
and  abroad — the  first  one  coming  from  Mr.  Robert  Lincoln,  the  son 
of  President  Lincoln — ^by  an  appeal  to  ex-Kentuckians,  and  finally 
by  a  whirlwind  campaign  such  as  the  Y.M.C.A.  people  use.  It  was 
not  an  easy  job,  for  it  was  hard  for  the  community  to  see  that  the 
West  End  needed  such  a  school  as  the  Civic  League  planned.  But 
the  money  was  finally  raised,  and  the  school  built  and  named  for 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Kentucky's  greatest  son,  and  it  has  become,  as 
the  Civic  League  said  it  would,  a  model  not  only  for  Lexington  but 
for  Kentucky,  which  is  having  a  distinct  effect  on  the  public  school 
standard  of  the  state.  And  sometimes  visitors  come  from  much 
farther  away  than  Kentucky.  Dr.  Charles  Fordyce,  Dean  of  Edu- 
cation of  the  University  of  Nebraska,  who  visited  Lincoln  School 
recently,  said  he  considered  it  the  finest  example  he  had  ever  seen 
of  the  perfect  blending  and  working  together  of  the  public  school 
and  the  social  settlement  principle. 

The  Civic  League,  when  most  of  the  money  was  raised,  entered 
into  a  contract  with  the  School  Board.  The  site  was  selected  and 
the  architect  and  the  plans  chosen,  and  the  school  built  by  a  joint 
conmiittee  of  School  Board,  and  Civic  League;  and  it  was  stipu- 
lated that  for  ten  years  after,  the  Civic  League  should  control  the 
use  of  the  school  building  for  all  recreational  and  educational  pur- 
poses outside  the  regular  school  uses.  Ten  years,  it  was  believed, 
would  fix  the  experiment  so  that  the  School  Board  would  no  longer 
need  the  Civic  League.    After  a  year  and  a  half  it  is  no  longer  an 


no        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

experiment;  it  seems  already  impossible  that  anything  so  beautiful 
could  perish  off  the  earth! 

The  school  has  a  carpenter  shop,  a  kitchen  and  sewing  room,  a 
laundry,  shower  baths  and  a  swimming  pool,  a  roof  garden  with 
an  outdoor  school — the  latest  project — and  a  room  75X40  feet  and 
a  story  and  a  half  high,  which  is  a  kindergarten  in  the  morning,  a 
gymnasium  in  the  afternoon,  an  auditorium  and  a  theater  at  night, 
and  the  pulsing  heart  of  the  school  and  the  community  life  morning, 
noon  and  night  of  every  day.  Here  the  Blue  Birds  and  the  Camp 
Fire  Girls  meet,  the  Athletic  Club,  the  Dramatic  Club,  the  Choral 
Club;  here  in  the  evening  sixty-five  girls  from  the  four  laundries, 
the  Ten  Cent  Store,  the  bottling  houses  of  the  two  distilleries  of  the 
neighborhood  and  from  the  tobacco  factories,  come  for  gymnastics 
and  a  swimming  lesson  afterwards.  Here  forty  mothers  of  the 
Mother's  Club  meet  once  a  month  for  health  lectures  and  for  a 
social  hour.  Here  finally  once  a  month  about  200  young  men  and 
girls  of  the  various  clubs  and  classes,  with  the  parents  for  chap- 
erones,  and  such  children  of  school  age  as  can  sUp  in,  gather  for  the 
monthly  dance  that  is  the  social  event  of  the  neighborhood.  There 
isn't  any  turkey  trotting,  for  the  edict  has  gone  forth  that  this 
"ain't  no  country  club,"  but  there  is  more  of  real  happiness  than 
was  found  in  the  many  saloons  that  furnished  the  only  public 
meeting  places  before  the  school  was  built. 

Only  once  did  the  auditorium  lose  its  attraction  for  a  little 
while — during  the  very  hot  season  of  last  July  and  August,  when 
the  swimming  pool  was  just  opened,  when  nobody  wanted  to  do 
anything  but  to  take  shower  baths  and  to  swim.  Nearly  a  thou- 
sand showers  were  paid  for  in  those  months,  with  numberless  baths 
to  school  children  for  which  no  charge  was  made.  There  are  no 
other  pubHc  baths,  no  other  public  swimming  pools  in  Lexington. 
Railroad  men  who  came  into  Lexington  from  a  two  days'  run, 
and  many  other  adults  not  directly  connected  with  the  school, 
were  glad  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  a  bath  and  a  swim.  As  for  the 
children,  when  the  swimming  pool  was  first  opened  the  widows  had 
to  be  nailed  up  to  keep  them  out,  until  proper  regulations  could  be 
estabhshed  for  ages  and  sexes  and  the  emptying  and  refilling  of 
the  pool.    Late  in  the  season  even  the  swimming  teacher  had  to 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL        iii 

dogmatically  limit  the  number  of  baths  in  a  day.  And  this  in  a 
neighborhood  where  cle^-nliness  had  been  rarer  and  more  difficult 
to  attain  than  godliness! 

Not  only  is  the  laundry  used  as  part  of  the  school  equipment, 
but  out  of  school  hours,  the  mothers  of  the  neighborhood  may 
bring  their  washing  to  it,  and  for  the  payment  of  ten  cents  may 
have  the  use  of  stationary  tubs,  with  running  water,  ironing  boards, 
with  gas  heaters  for  the  irons  and  a  steam  drier.  The  insufficiency 
of  the  water  supply  is  the  crying  need  of  the  neighborhood,  and  the 
laundry  is  seldom  out  of  use,  a  mother  sometimes  coming  even  at 
night  to  finish  her  ironing,  or  put  her  washing  to  soak,  while  her 
children  are  having  a  good  time  upstairs. 

There  is  a  circulating  library  in  the  school  which  supplies  the 
reading  for  the  neighborhood — a  neighborhood  that  did  little  read- 
ing before  the  coming  of  the  playground  and  the  kindergarten. 

Self-government  prevails  throughout  the  school,  from  the  floor 
committee  of  young  men  who  manage  the  dances,  to  the  house 
committees  of  very  small  boys  and  girls  who  in  each  grade  care  for 
the  school  room  and  maintain  order  for  the  teacher. 

About  the  last  thing  to  be  added  is  the  Outdoor  School.  On 
St.  Patrick's  Day  last,  when  crocuses  and  daffodils  came  out, 
thirty  little  children,  carefully  chosen  from  three  schools,  came  out 
on  the  roof  garden  to  do  their  studying  and  their  playing,  and  their 
sleeping.  The  School  Board  had  bought  desks  and  paid  the 
teacher's  salary.  When  the  Civic  League  and  the  Tuberculosis 
Society  counted  up  on  that  17  th  of  March  what  there  was  in  the 
treasury  when  cots  and  Esquimo  suits  and  blankets  and  all  equip- 
ment were  paid  for,  it  found  there  was  $4.50  in  the  treasury  to  feed 
those  children  on  till  the  4th  of  July,  when  the  school  was  to  close. 
But  the  ravens  provided,  and  they  have  been  fed  every  day  of  the 
school  term  since,  and  temperatures  and  pulses  have  gone  down, 
and  weights  have  gone  up,  and  rosy  cheeks  have  taken  the  place 
of  pale  ones.  This  was  the  third  open-air  school  ever  started  in  a 
Southern  City. 

The  Civic  League  employs  a  medical  helper,  who  has  charge  of 
the  outdoor  children,  follows  the  work  of  the  medical  inspector 
with  the  other  children,  goes  into  the  houses  of  the  neighborhood, 


112        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

and  keeps  a  social  history  card  for  every  pupil.  It  shows  scholar- 
ship, health,  home  conditions  and  sanitation,  and,  with  a  view  to 
proving  eventually  that  these  children  stay  in  school  longer  and  are 
fitted  to  earn  better  wages  when  they  come  out  than  did  their  older 
brothers  and  sisters,  it  shows  the  ages  at  which  these  brothers  and 
sisters  went  to  work,  the  wages  they  first  earned,  and  the  wages 
they  are  earning  today. 

Now  there  is  a  secret  to  every  formula,  and  the  Lincoln  School 
does  its  best  to  give  away  its  formula  to  every  visitor  who  comes; 
but  there  is  one  thing,  the  real  secret  of  its  success,  that  it  can't 
give  away — the  genius  of  the  little  kindergartner  who  supervised 
the  first  playground,  who  is  now  the  principal  of  the  "model"  school 
and  the  head  of  the  social  work;  whom  every  man,  woman  and  child 
in  the  neighborhood  adores;  about  whom  the  school  and  the  school 
idea  has  so  slowly  and  so  lovingly  grown  that  they  are  entwined  in 
the  very  life  of  the  neighborhood  forever!' 

Additions  are  of  course  frequently  made  to  the  equip- 
ment of  the  school.  Among  the  gifts  or  purchases  re- 
cently acquired  might  be  mentioned  an  Edison  machine; 
a  moving-picture  machine,  to  which  reference  has  been 
made;  a  Spaulding  playground  apparatus;  an  archery 
outfit;  pool  and  billiard  tables,  put  in  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  soldiers  at  Camp  Stanley;  an  electric  hair-dryer, 
bought  as  part  of  the  "personal  equipment." 

She  told  in  the  Memphis  address  one  secret  of  the 
growth  of  the  Lincoln  School.  The  work  of  Miss  Cloud 
there  should  have  an  enduring  place  in  the  record  of 
Lexington's  and  of  Kentucky's  educational  work,  as  well 
as  in  the  story  of  Kentucky's  social  work.  She  had  dis- 
covered Miss  Cloud  back  in  1901,  doing  playground 
work  to  the  delight  of  children  from  well-to-do  families 

» Forty-first  Annual  Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Corrections,  pp.  397  ff. 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE—LINCOLN  SCHOOL         113 

out  East  Main  Way,  and  had  brought  her  to  Irishtown 
in  the  beginning.  She  could  not  always  keep  her,  for 
there  were  other  groups  who  had  discovered  Miss  Cloud 
too.  But  for  several  years.  Miss  Cloud  has  known  no 
divided  affection  and  has  been  always  a  part  of  the  life 
of  Irishtown.  In  1908,  Miss  Cloud  went  for  inspiration 
and  suggestion  to  Chicago,  and  Madge  wrote  Miss 
Addams  about  her: 

My  dear  Miss  Addams: 

This  is  Miss  Cloud  of  whom  I  wrote  you.  She  is  head  Kinder- 
gartner  and  Principal  of  our  Irishtown  school,  and  is  the  person  to 
whom  we  owe  the  success  of  our  playground  movement.  She  is  in 
Chicago  learning — in  three  months,  like  our  sewing  machine  agent 
who  took  six  weeks  off  to  master  the  law, — ^how  to  run  our  Irish- 
town  school,  if  ever  we  get  the  kind  we  want — the  way  the  School 
of  Education  is  run. 

I  want  her  also  to  learn  at  Hull  House  and  at  Mary  McDowell's 
Settlement  how  to  run  a  settlement,  for  I  hope  some  day  to  have  a 
little  settlement  house  beside  our  large  school  house  in  Irishtown 
for  her  to  live  in.  The  school  will  still  be  a  part  of  the  PubKc 
School  System,  but  better  than  any  of  the  others  and  different. 

I  think  sometimes  when  I  remember  what  we  owe  Miss  Cloud, 
that  Jacob  Riis's  definition  of  Roosevelt  fits  her — "  the  most  valu- 
able citizen  of  Lexington. "  It  isn't  saying  quite  as  much  as  if  you 
said  New  York,  but  it  is  all  we  can  say. 

Don't  forget  you  are  coming  to  see  me  in  September. 

Very  truly  yours, 

M.  McD.  B. 

But  the  other  source  of  the  school's  success  is,  of 
course,  the  volume  of  work,  devotion,  and  intelligence 
she  continued  to  expend  on  the  problems  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, for  the  extra  services,  the  out-of-school  activities, 


114         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

had  to  be  paid  for  from  Civic  League  money;  and  she 
longed  to  make  the  play-space  about  the  school  a  model 
playground  as  the  school  had  served  as  a  demonstration 
school.  In  191 5-16  she  was  again  begging  money  for 
the  playground,  for  the  support  of  the  out-of-door 
school,  for  the  feeding  of  the  anemic  children.  A  letter 
written  August  20,  191 5,  in  the  attempt  to  secure  the 
playground  is  given  here.  The  playground  is  not  yet  the 
model,  for  the  city  has  not  yet  built  the  retaining  wall  and 
done  its  other  tasks;  but  the  plans  for  the  playground 
are  drawn,  awaiting  only  the  further  action  of  the  city. 

August  20,  19 1 5 
My  dear  Mr. : 

Now  and  then  I  have  mailed  you  little  newspaper  clippings 
hoping  to  give  you  some  idea  of  the  wonderful  use  that  has  been 
made  of  the  swimming  pool  and  shower  baths  at  Lincoln  School. 
These,  you  know,  we  owe  very  largely  to  your  generosity,  since  you 
gave  $500  of  the  extra  thousand  it  took  to  insure  them. 

The  school  has  been  an  unparalleled  success  in  every  respect. 
If  you  will,  I  want  you  to  read  the  enclosed  newspaper  article  to  see 
what  some  educational  authorities  from  a  distance  who  have  visited 
the  school  have  said  of  it.  Please  return  this  article  to  me,  as  this 
is  my  last  copy. 

It  is  hard  sometimes  to  tell  for  which  feature  to  be  the  most 
grateful:  the  swimming  pool  and  showers,  the  laundry,  which  the 
mothers  use  as  much  as  the  children,  the  auditorium,  which  is 
the  social  center  for  the  whole  community,  the  outdoor  school  on 
the  roof  garden,  or  just  the  school  itself,  which  is  giving  the  children 
of  that  community  a  preparation  for  life  that  no  children  growing 
up  there  ever  had  before. 

But  there  is  one  feature  that  we  have  wanted  from  the  begin- 
ning that  we  have  never  been  able  to  add,  a  model  play-ground 
about  the  school.  Since  we  began  teaching  in  the  school  the  social 
and  medical  work  in  connection  with  it  have  made  such  demands 
on  our  interest  and  the  money  we  could  raise,  that  we  simply  have 


THE  GIRLS  OF  IRISHTOWN 

l^earning  laundry  work  in  the  Lincoln  School 


THL  BOVS  OF  IRISHTOWN 
In  the  carpenter  shop  at  Lincoln  School 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         115 

not  been  able  to  do  the  play-ground  part.  We  have  made  a  rough 
guess  that  it  will  take  at  least  a  thousand  dollars  to  put  side-walks 
and  gutters,  to  fence,  grade,  surface  and  equip  the  original  lot. 
After  we  had  finally  scraped  up  that  much,  we  concluded  last  sum- 
mer that  the  wisest  thing  we  could  do  with  the  money  was  to  buy 
the  100  feet  on  High  Street  adjoining  our  school  lot.  On  30  feet  of 
this  the  little  house,  which  you  see  in  the  enclosed  picture,  stands, 
the  other  60  feet  is  vacant  and  we  got  it  at  a  very  low  price.  We 
own  the  Valley  Ave.  frontage  back  of  the  30  foot  lot.  If  we  could 
secure  the  Valley  Ave.  frontage  of  the  other  we  should  have  not  only 
a  good  play-ground  and  room  for  a  base-ball  diamond  as  well,  but 
really  a  little  park. 

As  the  school  building  is  now  the  only  social  and  physical  outlet 
for  the  people  in  that  community  under  decent  conditions,  so  this 
little  park  or  play-ground  would  furnish  the  only  place  in  that  whole 
section  for  out-door  exercise  and  recreation. 

We  want  it  very  much,  as  we  wanted  the  school,  to  set  a  stand- 
ard for  the  other  school  yards  in  Lexington.  The  standard  of  the 
school,  by  the  way,  has  worked  beautifully,  even  the  new  colored 
school  the  Board  is  now  building  is  to  have  equipment  for  manual 
training  and  domestic  science,  provisions  for  an  open-air  school 
room  and  an  auditorium  for  adult  and  recreational  use.  And  I 
believe  it  will  do  more  good  morally  among  the  colored  people  than 
several  additional  churches.  There  isn't  a  single  school  in  Lexing- 
ton for  white  or  colored  children  with  a  proper  play-ground  or 
properly  equipped.  There  is  only  one  in  fact  of  them  all  that  even 
has  the  necessary  space  for  such  a  play-ground. 

The  School  Board,  which  has  been  scrimped  to  death  merely  to 
meet  the  increased  school  population  with  the  usual  facilities,  will 
try  again  for  a  bond  issue  this  fall.  If  we  could  get  a  model  school 
yard  in  connection  with  Lincoln  School  it  would  practically  insure 
that  the  new  schools  add  not  only  such  features  as  Lincoln  School 
has  now  made  sine  qua  non  for  a  school  building,  but  that  a  proper- 
sized  and  equipped  play-ground  would  also  become  a  sine  qua  non 
for  a  school  building. 

We  can  get  some  money  from  the  School  Board  this  fall  for  the 
Lincoln  School,  but  we  are  particularly  anxious  to  have  this  appUed 


Ii6        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

to  putting  side-walks  on  two  sides  of  the  school,  to  guttering,  and 
to  drainage.  All  of  that  is  a  job  and  an  expensive  one  in  itself, 
and  streets  and  side- walks  and  drainage  there  will  be  almost  as  valu- 
able to  the  people  living  in  that  neighborhood,  all  of  whom  use  our 
school  building  steadily,  as  is  the  school  itself. 

It  seems  to  me  we  can  hardly  ask  the  children  and  their  elders 
to  tramp  through  the  mud  another  winter  or  our  janitors  to  try  to 
keep  the  school  building  clean.  I  think  it  will  take  at  least  a  thou- 
sand dollars  to  make  the  present  lot  into  a  properly  drained,  graded, 
surfaced,  equipped  play-ground  with  the  necessary  fencing,  etc.  It 
is  on  this  job  that  I  am  hoping  that  you  will  feel  inclined  to  help  us, 
as  you  did  about  getting  the  swimming  pool.  A  play-ground  and 
athletic  field  in  Irishtown  is  something  that  it  is  as  hard  for  the 
average  Lexingtonian  to  see  the  need  of  as  it  was  to  make  them  see 
the  need  of  such  a  school  building  with  swimming  pool,  etc.  Now 
we  have  it,  nobody  can  ever  enter  it  and  doubt  again.  It  will  be 
the  same  thing  when  we  offer  a  little  park  as  counter  attraction  to 
the  six  saloons  in  that  neighborhood,  but  somehow  I  can't  get  Lex- 
ington people  to  see  it  beforehand.  (We  are  working  to  try  to  get 
rid  of  the  six  saloons,  but  that  is  a  still  longer  fight  in  this  commu- 
nity and  I  am  convinced  that  the  constructive  work  like  opening 
other  places  for  recreational  purposes  besides  the  saloons  has  to  go 
along  with  it.) 

I  hope  this  long  letter  has  not  worn  you  out  and  that  you  may 
feel  incHned  to  help  us  do  a  further  really  big  and  valuable  thing  in 
connection  with  Lincoln  School. 

Hoping  to  hear  from  you,  I  am 

Cordially  yours, 

Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge 

She  described  in  her  various  letters  the  development 
of  the  social  uses  of  the  building  and  its  equipment. 
In  the  summer  of  191 7  the  usual  activities  were  enlarged 
to  meet  the  recreational  needs  of  the  soldiers  at  Camp 
Stanley,  located  on  the  Versailles  road,  which  is  an 
extension  of  the  street  on  which  the  school  faces.  Dances 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         117 

and  social  entertainments  of  various  kinds  were  so 
planned  as  to  give  the  soldiers  amusement,  catching 
them  before  they  got  farther  into  town  and  fell  into 
the  hands  of  those  awaiting  them  for  their  undoing. 
The  most  distinguished  and  careful  chaperonage  was 
provided  so  that  every  girl  might  feel  perfectly  safe 
when  present  at  these  parties.  In  the  following  winter, 
when  bitter  cold  prevailed,  while  coal  was  scarce  and  prices 
were  high  and  families  suffered,  the  doors  of  the  school 
would  not  be  closed  for  days  at  a  time.  The  domestic- 
science  group  served  hot  soup  and  coffee;  the  laundry 
was  made  fullest  use  of  with  its  facilities  for  heating 
water  and  for  rapid  drying;  sports  were  carried  on  by  the 
social  workers  in  the  afternoon  and  evening.  There  were 
basket-  and  volley-ball  games  of  young  people,  knitting 
groups  of  grandmothers,  reading  circles  in  the  Ubrary. 
The  place  was  alive  with  neighbors,  warm  and  friendly 
and  comfortable.  The  children  helped  in  carrying  buckets 
of  soup  and  coffee  to  shut-in  neighbors;  and,  though  not 
a  class  exercise  was  lost,  a  period  of  what  would  have 
been  great  suffering  was  not  only  safely  passed,  but  was 
turned  into  an  experience  of  neighborly  service  of  the 
richest  kind. 

But  the  normal  contacts  are  by  way  of  good  times. 
There  are  the  evening  parties;  the  afternoon  club  meet- 
ings of  older  and  of  younger  women,  of  girls  gone  out 
into  wage-earning,  and  of  boys  who  are  now  at  work; 
the  contests  with  groups  from  other  schools;  with  groups 
from  other  playgrounds;  and  the  Lincoln  School  contest- 
ants often  win  the  prizes  for  swimming  feats.  Sometimes 
there  is  a  patron's  day,  with  a  program  like  the  follow- 
ing, lasting  all  day. 


Ii8         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

PROGRAM  AT  LINCOLN  SCHOOL 

Patron's  Day  will  be  uniquely  celebrated  at  Lincoln  School  this 
morning  at  lo :  30  o'clock.     The  public  is  invited. 

The  program  follows: 
Bugle  Call — S.  C.  Ballard,  Second  Regiment 
Salute  the  Flag 

Retrospect  of  American  History,  by  occupants  of  Ship  of  State 
Song— Who  Wouldn't  Be  a  Soldier  ? 
Indian  War  Dance 
Star-spangled  Banner 

Belgian  Rose,  song  and  waltz  in  front  of  Antwerp  Cathedral 
Holland  Song — Wooden  Shoes  and  Wiadmill  Dance  in  village  street 
Pohsh  National  Hymn 

Robin  Hood  and  His  Merry  Men — contest  in  archery 
Maypole  Dance 
Song — Rule  Britannia 
French  Minuet  Dance 
Eiffel  Tower — Marseillaise 
Native  French  Song 
Flower  Girls 


Japanese  Dance 

Song — Saruka  (Cherry  Blossoms) 

Solo  by  Girl  in  Jinrikisha 

Highland  Fling 

Song — Bluebells  of  Scotland 

Spanish  Song 

Irish  Lilt 

Song — Wearin'  of  the  Green — ^from  Blarney  Castle 

Italian  National  Song 

Dance — Tarantella 

Santa  Lucia 

Song  by  all  nations — Sail  On,  O  Ship  of  State 

The  day's  festivities  will  end  with  a  social  gathering  and  dance 
in  the  evening. 


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THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         119 

A  "rummage  sale"  is  the  culmination  of  a  long 
series  of  co-operative  activities.  Many  articles  are  given 
through  the  school,  but  nothing  dilapidated  or  soiled 
or  unsuited  to  the  uses  of  an  individual  is  passed  on. 
Articles  that  can  be  repaired  are  cleaned  and  repaired  and 
altered,  all  the  processes  being  used  as  a  basis  for  instruc- 
tion.    Sometimes  the  final  products  are  placed  on  sale. 

A  further  word  will  be  said  about  the  social  work 
of  the  school  in  the  following  chapter;  for  while  on  the 
whole  the  activities  are  of  an  educational  and  recreational 
character,  there  arises  the  necessity,  as  in  the  winter  of 
191 7-18  referred  to  and  in  the  activities  of  the  outdoor 
school,  of  rendering  aid  not  unlike  the  giving  of  material 
relief.  This  involves  the  appHcation  of  the  case  method 
of  work,  and  the  history  card  is  the  basis  for  sound 
treatment  in  this  as  well  as  in  the  medical  supervision 
and  care. 

The  beautiful  occasions  that  mark  the  life  of  the 
children  at  Lincoln  School  can  be  somewhat  illustrated 
by  the  pictures;  the  kind  of  knowledge  possessed  by  the 
members  of  the  staff  is  indicated  by  the  "social  history" 
card.  Perhaps  the  most  convincing  evidence  of  the  true 
success  of  the  school,  however,  is  the  condition  in  which 
the  children  whose  mothers  were  among  the  pupils  of  those 
earlier  days  come  to  school,  the  way  in  which  those  moth- 
ers understand  and  use  the  school,  and  the  way  in  which 
in  their  homes  the  floors  are  clean  and  there  are  white 
sash  curtains  at  windows  that  go  up  and  down  and  there 
are  well-kept  little  grassplots  on  which  children  can  play. 
The  children  from  these  homes  are  gladly  brought  or 
come  voluntarily  to  the  weekly  clinic,  and  the  members 
of  the  staff  are  certain  that  they  find  less  sickness  and 


I20        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

greater  opportunity  for  effective  treatment  in  these 
"second  generation'^  homes. 

The  account  of  the  school  would  be  incomplete, 
however,  were  no  mention  made  of  the  place  it  has  had 
as  a  demonstration.  Whether  it  is  well  to  call  an  enter- 
prise in  which  one  is  interested  a  "model"  may  be 
questioned.  There  are  some  in  every  community  who 
do  not  wish  to  "follow"  anything  and  who  must  be 
enabled  to  appear  to  have  discovered  for  themselves. 
Moreover,  many  public-spirited  persons  prefer  to  go 
over  the  experimental  stage  for  themselves.  Like  Thomas 
of  old,  they  find  it  difficult  to  be  convinced  by  other  than 
their  sense  of  touch.  But,  however  the  views  on  that 
subject  may  differ,  the  demonstration  character  of  the 
work  had  several  elements  of  value. 

In  the  first  place,  the  school  served  to  show  to  the 
community  what  the  conditions  really  were.  It  is  a  new 
understanding  that  comes  when  one  assumes  a  special 
responsibihty  for  a  situation. 

For  example,  in  March,  1914,  the  city  authorities 
granted  a  new  license  for  a  coffee-house  at  one  address 
on  Manchester  Street  and  the  transfer  to  another  address 
of  a  Hcense  which  had  been  enjoyed  at  another  location 
and  revoked  because  of  violations  of  the  law  there. 
The  granting  and  transferring  of  licenses  for  coffee- 
houses in  the  old  days  were  not  uncommon  acts,  and 
Manchester  Street  was  in  those  days  a  street  where  law- 
breaking  was  a  common  phenomenon.  But  by  191 4 
several  things  had  happened.  The  more  ambitious  and 
decent  families  had  become  vocal  and  had  somewhere 
.to  go  for  help.  They  therefore — ninety-four  of  them, 
"residents  and  property-owners  living  in  Irishtown" — 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         121 

drew  up  and  signed  a  protest.'  The  persons  closely  con- 
nected with  the  school  reported  to  others  what  it  meant, 
and  the  result  was  that  the  commissioners  reconsidered, 
the  two  applicants  explained  that  they  never  had  wanted 
the  licenses  anyhow,  and  the  neighborhood  was  spared. 

Another  value  such  a  demonstration  possesses  lies 
in  the  opportunity  to  learn  through  association  with  public 
officials  what  are  the  real  impediments  in  the  way  of  a 
general  appreciation  of  the  particular  problems.  It 
cannot  be  expected  that  the  public  officials,  selected  as 
they  are,  will  realize  the  economy  in  swiftly  wiping  out 
such  evils  as  iUiteracy  and  demoralized  home  conditions, 
but  how  to  bring  home  the  lesson  most  swiftly  is  more 
easily  learned  when  the  members  of  the  group  who  see 
the  way  ahead  are  in  frequent  and  natural  intercourse 
with  the  public  officials  in  the  performance  of  common 
tasks.  She  felt  the  importance  of  this  common  under- 
taking and  urged  it  whenever  the  opportunity  arose. 

It  is  true  that  Madge^s  name  is  not  in  any  carven  stone, 
but  her  face  is  there.  For  when  she  chose  another  name 
for  the  school,  the  school  refused  to  remain  without 
evidence  that  the  children  and  teachers  knew  to  whose 
work  their  presence  there  was  due.  From  contributions 
of  the  children  a  fund  was  raised  for  the  painting  of  a 
portrait,  for  which  she  sat  in  the  winter  of  1920;  and 
from  the  walls  of  the  auditorium,  which  bears  her  beloved 
father's  name,  her  eyes  look  down  on  all  their  gay  activi- 
ties— o^  the  "beating  of  the  pulse  of  the  neighborhood,'' 
as  she  described  the  room. 

Although  I  have  tried  to  put  together  the  important 
items  in  the  development  of  the  work  in  "Irishtown,'' 

^Lexington  Herald,  March  5,  1914. 


122         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

I  have,  I  know,  failed  to  portray  the  imminence,  the 
constancy,  the  illumination  of  her  devotion  to  the  school. 
I  desire  therefore  to  close  the  chapter  with  the  state- 
ment of  Miss  Cloud,  who  has  been  able  to  speak  in  terms 
both  of  truth  and  of  beauty. 

Behind  the  institution  bearing  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
stands  the  great  heart  of  Mrs.  Breckinridge. 

I  am  often  reminded  of  what  Prof.  Anna  Bowen  said  of  Mrs. 
Breckinridge  after  a  visit  to  the  Httle  school  on  Manchester  Street: 
"As  I  left  the  Httle  school  and  came  toward  West  Main  Street  I 
lifted  my  eyes  and  saw  standing  on  his  tall  shaft  just  in  front  of  me 
the  form  of  Kentucky's  most  honored  son,  apparently  watching 
down  the  Httle  street  where  the  children  came  to  play.  Could  the 
old  statesman  come  back  and  walk  for  a  day  among  those  who  are 
proud  to  trace  their  lineage  to  him,  I  doubt  not  he  would  acknowl- 
edge that  his  mantle  of  true  statesmanship — the  unselfish  giving 
of  oneself  to  build  up  the  state — had  fallen  now  upon  the 
woman  who  is  today  so  unselfishly  giving  her  best  thought  and 
effort  to  upHf  t  her  fellows — the  little  people  of  Irish  town. " 

I  am  asking  you  to  come  with  me  to  these  early  days  when  the 
West  End  playground  was  started  in  the  distillery  lot  on  Man- 
chester Street.  Many  of  the  early  workers  have  gone  into  larger 
fields  and  some  into  the  Great  Beyond. 

A  concentrated  service  of  twenty  years  cannot  be  gone  over  in 
five  minutes  and  so  I  can  touch  only  a  few  of  our  most  treasured 
experiences  and  point  to  the  sharp  turns  in  the  road  which  have 
demonstrated  to  Lexington  that  Lincoln  School  is  worth  while. 

It  is  generally  understood  that  no  effort  to  better  the  lot  of  the 
poor  amounts  to  much  unless  in  some  way  it  takes  the  form  of  edu- 
cation. And  it  was  the  form  of  education  which  would  inspire 
and  encourage  those  less  fortunate  which  became  the  grave  concern 
of  Mrs.  Breckinridge.  It  was  her  abiding  faith  in  her  feUow- 
creature  as  well  as  the  sure  conviction  of  her  ingenious  and  scintil- 
lating mind  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  a  new  form  of  education. 

The  moment  this  thought  came  to  her  she  embraced  it  as  the 
opportunity  to  express  her  inmost  self.  She  marshaled  her  forces 
and  stepped  in  o  her  role  as  leader  and  grappled  with  opposing 


THE  CIVIC  LEAGUE— LINCOLN  SCHOOL         123 

conditions,  readjusting  and  creating  until  the  scheme  seemed  per- 
fect. She  began  at  once  on  city  officials  enforcing  and  creating  laws 
by  which  the  West  End  of  the  city  might  be  lighted  and  cleaned  up. 
She  changed  the  sewage  plan  and  laid  water  pipes  along  the  main 
streets  and  secured  concrete  walks  and  graded  streets.  She,  also, 
planted  shade  trees  along  the  sidewalks.  She  encouraged  the  Sun- 
day closing  law  in  this  end  of  town  by  inaugurating  the  band  concert. 

Beautiful  excursions  were  given  to  the  mothers  who  willingly 
became  patrons  of  the  school.  Mothers'  clubs  were  conducted  at 
the  school  where  carpet  rags  were  sewed  and  civic  questions  were 
expounded. 

The  manual  training  school  in  the  yard  was  the  nucleus  out  of 
which  grew  the  manual  training  system  for  the  public  schools. 

Now  that  the  new  school  was  started  workers  seemed  to  come 
from  every  side  and  in  order  to  perfect  the  work  she  sent  chosen 
ones  to  various  schools  for  observation.  In  a  letter  to  Jane  Addams 
in  Chicago,  she  said,  "  Please  be  good  to  the  bearer  of  this  letter, 
show  her  your  settlement  and  teach  her  how  to  run  one.  I  hope 
to  come  to  Chicago  in  the  fall  and  raise  enough  money  to  put  with 
what  I  have  gotten  from  the  school  board  and  build  the  Model 
School  for  the  poor  part  of  our  city. "  This  is  one  of  thousands  of 
letters  sent  out  asking  for  suggestions  as  to  operation  and  help. 

Lecturers  came  by  the  score  to  educate  the  public  and  prepare 
them  for  the  wider  use  of  the  model  school  plant — the  school  laun- 
dry, the  swimming  pool,  the  community  kitchen,  evening  recrea- 
tion and  organized  teamwork  in  play. 

The  school  library  was  started  for  Mrs.  Breckinridge  by  the 
Chi  Omega  girls  of  Lexington  in  191 2.  They  conducted  book 
showers  and  dramatic  clubs  for  older  girls  and  took  charge  of  the 
Christmas  festivities  for  several  years,  giving  freely  of  their  money 
and  time. 

In  April,  191 2,  the  Open  Air  Department  was  added  to  the 
school.  In  an  article  written  by  Mrs.  Breckinridge  at  its  installa- 
tion she  quoted  from  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  these  lines, 

"The  children  sing  in  far  Japan, 
The  children  sing  in  Spain, 
The  organ  and  the  organ  man, 
Are  singing  in  the  rain. " 


124        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Then  why  should  we  not  provide  for  the  happiness  of  our  under- 
nourished children  and  make  the  swimming  and  showers,  lunch 
periods  and  the  rest  times  bright  spots  in  the  lives  of  the  children  ? 

From  time  to  time  Lincoln  School  has  added  to  its  activities 
those  things  which  have  become  essential  in  the  scheme  of  the  wider 
use  of  the  school  plant.  The  moving  picture  machine  is  its  last 
acquisition. 

The  following  poem  was  sent  to  me  by  Mrs.  Breckinridge  in 
September  of  last  year,  and  it  so  thoroughly  expresses  her  constant 
thought  that  I  would  like  to  quote  it: 

"  We  send  them  off  to  school  again  today. 
This  cool  September  morning.    All  the  street 
Is  musical  with  patter  of  small  feet, 
And  little,  shining  faces  all  the  way 
Seem  wayside  posies  for  our  smiles  to  greet. 

"I  wonder  if  they  ever  guess  or  know 
With  what  strange  tenderness  we  watch  them  go  ? 
Just  children  on  their  way  to  school  again  ? 
Nay,  it  is  ours  to  watch  a  greater  thing — 
These  are  the  World's  Rebuilders,  these  must  bring 
Order  to  chaos,  comforting  to  pain, 
And  light  in  blasted  fields,  new  fires  of  Spring. 

"  Dear  Lord,  Thy  childish  hands  were  weak  and  small. 
Yet  had  they  power  to  clasp  the  world  withal. 
Grant  these.  Thy  little  kindred,  strength  as  true — 
They  have  so  much  to  learn,  so  much  to  do. " 

In  that  she  was  wise  we  sought  her  counsel.  In  that  she  was 
brave,  dauntless,  and  fearless,  we  admired  her.  In  that  she  was  ex- 
quisite and  delicate  we  hoped  not  to  offend  her.  In  that  she  was 
at  all  times  our  loving  friend  we  loved  her. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident  that  all  men  are  endowed  with 
certain  inalienable  rights^  that  among  them  are  life 

It  is  not  easy  to  write  of  Madge's  warfare  against 
tuberculosis.  In  the  first  place,  she  was  herself  a  victim 
of  the  disease;  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  she  lived  a 
life  that,  while  full  of  satisfaction,  joy,  ardent  and  eager 
happiness,  and  valiant  effort,  was  never  free  from  con- 
sciousness of  the  disease.  She  did  not  complain.  The 
distinguished  physician  in  New  York,  who  cared  for  her 
in  the  early  nineties,  wrote,  after  her  death:  "I  have 
always  been  proud  of  her  career,  and  I  have  never  for- 
gotten her  calm  resignation  as  a  patient  when  under 
my  care  in  this  city  many  years  ago."  While  she  often 
subjected  herself  to  strains  both  physical  and  nervous 
that  for  more  vigorous  persons  would  have  been  thought 
unendurable,  she  lived  within  certain  limitations  imposed 
by  her  malady.  She  was  always  prepared  for  the  bell  to 
sound  and  for  plans  to  be  suddenly  disarranged.  In 
1903-4  she  was  in  a  sanatorium  in  Denver,  in  1908  in 
Arizona  and  California,  in  the  winters  of  191 6  and  191 7 
she  was  in  Asheville,  North  Carolina,  in  the  summer  of 
1916,  191 7,  1918  at  Saranac,  New  York. 

Then  emotionally  she  was  interested  in  the  subject 
of  the  treatment  and  curabihty  of  the  disease.  Her 
grandfather.  Dr.  WiUiam  Adair  McDowell,  had  suffered 
persecution  for  his  convictions  on  that  subject,  and  she 
felt  near  to  him  as  she  felt  near  to  anyone  who  endured 

125 


126        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

martyrdom  for  his  convictions;  and  his  sufferings  were 
fresh  to  the  memory  of  "Aunt  Mag.''  As  she  worked 
over  the  problem  in  her  own  case,  too,  she  realized  more 
•clearly  the  extent  of  the  needless  loss  and  waste  of  life 
in  Kentucky.  After  her  return  in  1904  from  Colorado, 
where  she  and  her  mother  had  been  undergoing  treat- 
ment, she  brought  the  subject  before  the  Civic  League, 
as  has  been  pointed  out.  But  when  a  course  of  lectures 
had  been  given  and  the  true  nature  of  the  task  realized 
it  became  clear  that  such  an  undertaking  as  developing 
an  antituberculosis  movement  should  be  the  work  of  a 
separate  organization,  drawing  in  other  influences  and 
attacking  the  problem  from  another  angle  than  that 
from  which  the  League  approached  its  tasks.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  Civic  League  held  November  20,  1905, 
the  problem  was  set  forth  and  the  campaign  was,  as  it 
were,  launched.  The  facts  with  reference  to  the  disease 
in  Kentucky  were  reviewed,  the  experience  of  Louisville's 
effort  in  the  same  movement  related,  plans  for  a  meeting 
of  organization  were  laid,  and  the  work,  including  the 
employment  of  a  visiting  nurse,  the  initiation  of  an 
educational  campaign,  the  drafting  of  legislation  was 
outlined.  A  subsequent  meeting  for  organization  was 
accordingly  held  on  December  17,  addressed  by  Dr.  S.  A. 
Knopf,  of  New  York,  a  constitution  was  adopted,  officers 
were  elected,  and  the  new  society  was  vigorously  launched.^ 
At  this  meeting  for  organization,  steps  were  taken 
looking  toward  the  development  of  an  educational  cam- 

*  The  ofl&cers  elected  then  were  Dr.  George  P.  Sprague,  president;  Thomas 
A.  Combs  and  Dr.  J.  A.  Stucky,  vice-presidents;  Mrs.  Warner  Kinkead, 
secretary;  and  Mr.  Thomas  Johnson,  treasurer.  She  was  one  of  four  members 
of  the  Executive  Committee  with  Colonel  John  R.  Allen,  Ralph  S.  Goldensen, 
and  Dr.  D.  L.  Smith. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      127 

paign  in  co-operation  with  the  local  health  authorities, 
toward  co-operation  with  the  Associated  Charities  in 
the  support  of  a  visiting  nurse  and  in  the  maintenance 
of  a  tuberculosis  dispensary  and  clinic,  and  toward  the 
pushing  of  the  legislative  program .  With  amazing  prompt- 
ness a  bill  providing  for  the  establishment  and  main- 
tenance of  a  state  sanatorium  for  the  care  and  treatment 
of  patients  suffering  from  tuberculosis  was  introduced 
on  the  sixteenth  of  the  following  month.' 

This  measure  was  a  carefully  elaborated  scheme 
carrying  an  appropriation  of  $50,000  for  the  purchase 
of  a  site  and  for  the  construction  of  a  building  and  of 
$20,000  annually  for  the  maintenance  of  the  institution, 
and  creating  an  unpaid  bipartisan  board  of  six  trustees, 
for  which  women  were  to  be  eligible,  two  of  whom  were 
to  be  physicians,  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor  and 
Senate. 

Its  introduction  did  not,  however,  mean  hasty  prepa- 
ration. It  had  been  under  consideration  by  those  who 
were  planning  the  separate  organization.  It  embodied 
the  best  thought  of  the  Lexington  group  after  conference 
with  experts  from  New  York  and  Chicago,  and  after 
careful  study  of  bills  presented  in  other  states  and  com- 
pilations of  reports  from  existing  sanatoria.  The  appro- 
priations, while  not  as  great  as  would  be  needed,  were  as 
great  as  the  Committee  thought  the  legislature  prepared 
to  grant.  The  bill  approved  itself  to  the  legislature,  too, 
and  failed  of  passage  only  because,  after  it  had  passed 
the  Senate,  Governor  Beckham  interf erred  to  prevent 
its  passage  by  the  lower  house.  It  was  reintroduced  in 
1908   with  an   increased   appropriation   of  $75,000   for 

» See  Lexington  Herald,  January  17,  1906,  for  the  draft  of  this  act. 


128        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

purchase  and  construction  and  $30,000  for  maintenance 
and  was  passed  by  the  legislature.  This  time,  however, 
it  was  vetoed  by  Governor  Willson  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  an  ill-considered  measure.  He  wrote  to  the  president 
of  the  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  that  the  bill 
provided  for  "no  plan,  no  location,"  that  "it  is  a  most 
hopelessly  thoughtless  and  ill-considered  suggestion  which 
no  friend  to  such  a  movement  as  I  would  support." 
He  wrote  to  Mrs.  Breckinridge: 

Dear  Mrs.  Breckinridge: 

I  do  hope  that  you  are  well,  and  I  do  wish  to  send  you  word  of 
cheer.  Child  Labor,  Juvenile  Court  bills  approved.  Have  not 
reached  School  Bill.  You  will  soon  get  message  on  Tuberculosis 
Bill.  I  shall  help  that  cause — dear  to  me.  My  father  and  brother 
Forsythe  Willson  were  its  victims. 

But  investigation,  system,  ample  information  and  providing 
the  money  must  come  first.  I  think  this  appropriation  would  be 
mere  waste.  It  will  take  $500,000,  and  annual  $100,000,  and  we 
can  not  start  this  half-thought-out  way  on  an  empty  treasury, 
$800,000  deficit. 

.  Hoping  you  are  quite  well  or  gaining  in  good  cheer,  I  am. 

Yours  with  sincere  respect  for  your  noble  and  dauntless  spirit, 

Augustus  E.  Willson 

This  attack  upon  her  work  and  this  charge  of  lack  of 
preparation  evoked  one  of  the  most  incisive,  masterly, 
and  comprehensive  documents  she  had  ever  occasion  to 
prepare.  In  her  report  to  the  State  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs  she  makes  answer  to  the  objections  of  Governor 
Willson  in  a  review  of  the  entire  procedure  of  preparing 
a  measure  for  the  consideration  of  a  legislative  body 
such  that  its  careful  study  would   repay   any  student 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      129 

of  social  legislation/  Her  final  explanation  of  the 
governor's  objection  is  that  perhaps  he  thought  that  the 
drafters  of  the  measure  thought  that  he  would  select 
the  six  trustees  from  the  Institute  for  the  Feeble-Minded! 
But  she  was  not  to  be  discouraged.  In  September, 
1909,  the  Kentucky  Association  for  the  Prevention  and 
Relief  of  Tuberculosis  was  organized  at  a  meeting  held  in 
Louisville — organized  for  the  purpose  of  doing  educational 
work  in  the  field,  encouraging  the  organization  of  local 
associations,  promoting  the  establishment  of  dispensaries 
for  the  treatment  and  care  of  needy  persons,  encouraging 
the  establishment  of  local  sanatoria,  co-operating  with 
public  officials  in  preventive  work,  and  securing  appro- 
priate legislation.  She  spoke  at  that  meeting,  describing 
the  situation  in  Lexington  and  urging  the  importance  of 
public  (state)  sanatoria.  In  closing  her  address,  she  said: 

We  look  forward  to  the  time  when  Lexington  shall  have  its 
local  hospital  and  the  Blue  Grass  counties  shall  have  combined 
their  resources  in  a  farm  sanatorium  where  their  own  patients  may 
be  cured  in  their  home  altitude  and  climate.  But  we  feel  very 
strongly  that  the  first  measure  of  relief  to  which  we  should  all  bend 
our  energies  is  to  procure  a  state  institution  or  institutions.  Not 
only  would  this  offer  some  measure  of  relief  to  all  parts  of  the  state, 
but  the  institutions  would  serve  an  educational  purpose  as  well.* 

She  was  elected  first  vice-president  of  the  new  organiza- 
tion and  remained  an  officer  of  that  organization  until 
her  death. 

From  this  time  (1909)  her  work  in  this  field  of  tuber- 
culosis took  on  two  aspects,  the  local  and  the  state  activi- 
ties, and  the  thread  of  the  two  may  be  briefly  traced. 

*  Yearbook  of  the  Kentucky  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  1908-9,  p.  76. 
'  Lexington  Leader,  September  30,  1909. 


I30        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

In  the  local  field  there  were  three  lines  of  effort.' 
The  first  was  that  directed  toward  the  maintenance  of 
the  nursing  service  with  its  attendant  problems  of  relief. 
She  was  familiar  with  the  general  problem  of  the  care 
of  the  sick  poor  in  their  homes,  for  the  Associated  Chari- 
ties had  since  the  winter  of  1906-7  attempted  to  main- 
tain a  visiting-nurse  service. 

On  August  I,  1 9 10,  the  earlier  society,  organized  in 
December,  1905,  was  expanded  into  the  Fayette  Tuber- 
culosis Association,  which  entered  upon  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign of  education  and  service.  The  society  employed 
a  supervising  nurse,  who  had  had  training  in  a  similar 
organization  in  Chicago.  During  its  first  six  months  of 
effort  107  patients  received  care.  On  February  10,  191 1, 
a  dispensary  was  opened  in  the  same  building  with  the 
Associated  Charities,  several  physicians  gave  their 
services,  and  the  patients  became  dispensary  cases. 
On  May  11,  191 1,  the  Association  took  on  the  functions 
of  a  visiting-nurse  organization. 

The  Association  began  vigorous  educational  work. 
Before  the  close  of  the  period  by  the  first  report,  January  i, 
1913,  45,612  pieces  of  literature  had  been  distributed, 
prizes  for  compositions  on  the  subject  had  been  offered 
in  the  elementary  and  high  schools,  and  over  three 
thousand  compositions  had  been  read,  school  instruction 
had  been  inaugurated  in  both  city  and  county.  Tuber- 
culosis Sunday  had  been  established.  In  the  beginning 
the  Association  had  given  relief  in  the  form  of  rent  and 
food  when  the  breadwinner  of  a  family  was  tuberculous. 
After  May,  191 1,  however,  the  burden  of  general  relief 
was  laid  upon  the  Associated  Charities,  while  the  organi- 

*  Lexington  Herald,  March  31,  1911. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      131 

zation  supplied  the  special  food  and  clothing  called  for 
by  the  treatment. 

Madge  was  second  vice-president  of  the  organization 
during  the  first  year  and  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  during  all  the  other  years. 

In  the  autumn  of  191 1  the  Board  of  Education 
estabUshed  medical  inspection  in  the  schools,  the  Associ- 
ation nurses  doing  much  of  the  "follow-up"  work  that 
should  be  provided  for  by  the  establishment  of  a  school 
nursing  service. 

From  the  beginning  the  organization  was  specially 
concerned  for  the  care  of  children  who  were  anemic, 
in  need  of  surgical  treatment  of  ears  and  eyes,  nose  and 
throat,  or  pretubercular.  In  the  first  report  published 
by  the  Association  on  January  i,  1913,  the  Association 
urged  (i)  the  establishment  of  an  open-air  school,  (2)  the 
creation  of  Fayette  County  as  a  tuberculosis  district 
under  a  law  passed  in  191 2,  (3)  a  movement  toward 
housing  reform,  and  (4)  an  expansion  of  its  educational 
and  nursing  service. 

A  second  definite  development,  then,  was  that  recom- 
mended in  this  report  and  fulfilled  when  on  St.  Patrick's 
Day  of  1 91 3  the  open-air  school  was  inaugurated  at 
Lincoln  School  under  the  joint  auspices  of  the  Civic 
League,  the  Association,  and  the  Board  of  Education. 
As  has  been  said,  at  first  the  anemic  children  came  from 
other  schools  as  well  as  from  the  Lincoln  School  group 
on  recommendation  of  the  nurses,  by  permit  from  the 
Board.  The  income  from  the  Anthony  Dye  Fund, 
amoimting  to  about  $500  or  $550  a  year,  was  used  to 
pay  the  salary  of  a  social  worker  who  acted  as  medical 
assistant.    The  fund  also  furnished  the  milk  necessary 


132        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

for  the  children's  special  diet.  The  Tuberculosis  Associ- 
ation furnished  the  equipment  for  the  school  and  other 
food  besides  milk.  The  Board  of  Education  furnished  the 
teacher,  who  gave  instruction  in  the  grade  subjects, 
and  the  assistance  of  a  domestic-science  teacher  was 
given  for  making  out  the  special  dietaries  of  the  chil- 
dren. When  in  any  case  the  disease  became  positive 
the  child  was  taken  from  the  school  and  to  the  extent 
possible  given  home  conditions  favorable  to  his  re- 
covery. Through  this  division  of  the  work,  the  closest 
co-operation  has  been  maintained  among  the  various 
organizations  and  the  effectiveness  of  the  work  has  been 
greatly  increased  since  the  opening  of  the  Sanatorium 
in  1917. 

The  third  line  of  local  effort  was  that  directed  toward 
the  establishment  of  a  local  sanatorium. 

In  191 2,  a  tuberculosis  bill  was  finally  passed  by  the 
legislature  and  signed  by  the  governor.  It  did  not  provide 
for  a  state  sanatorium,  as  she  had  so  hoped  to  have  an 
act  provide,  but  created  a  commission,  to  which  reference 
will  be  made  below,  and  also  provided  for  the  creation 
of  tuberculosis  districts^  with  power  to  erect  and  maintain 
sanatoria.  These  districts  could  consist  of  a  single  county 
or  of  several  contiguous  counties.  The  district  could  be 
created  by  resolution  of  the  fiscal  court  or  in  default 
of  the  court's  action  by  an  election  held  in  accordance 
with  certain  requirements  laid  down  in  the  statute. 
The  governing  body  of  a  district  once  created  was  to  be 
an  unpaid  revolving  board  of  seven  persons  designated 
by  the  county  judge  from  nominations  made  by  the 
state  commission. 

Mc/5o/ip72,  chap.  iii,p.  358,  sec.  6. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      133 

To  that  board  were  given  by  the  statute  the  powers 
of  a  body  corporate  and  the  authority  to  construct, 
maintain,  and  conduct  a  sanatorium  for  the  care  and 
treatment  of  tuberculosis  patients — first,  such  as  were 
indigent  residents  of  the  district,  and  then,  if  there  were 
sufficient  accommodations,  those  from  other  districts. 

The  law  went  into  effect  July  i,  191 2,  but  no  action 
looking  toward  the  creation  of  a  tuberculosis  district 
was  taken  by  the  Fayette  Fiscal  Court,  though  twice 
solicited  to  take  such  action;'  and  in  the  autumn  of  1913 
an  election  was  held  in  which  the  creation  of  such  a 
district  was  a  leading  issue.  Again,  therefore,  there  was 
necessity  for  a  campaign.  That  it  was  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign is  shown  by  the  following  comment  from  the 
current  press: 

Those  in  favor  of  other  movements  for  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity might  well  take  heed  of  the  work  done  and  the  methods 
pursued  to  arouse  interest  and  to  educate  the  people  upon  the  need 
for  a  tuberculosis  sanatorium ;  pubHc  meetings  were  held  at  which 
the  present  conditions  were  revealed  both  by  word  and  by  picture, 
and  the  need  for  a  vigorous  campaign  against  the  White  Plague 
pointed  out;  a  committee  was  appointed,  of  which  Mr.  Fred 
Lazarus  was  chairman,  to  organize  a  force  to  be  at  the  polls  on 
election  day;  and  at  every  voting  booth  there  was  one — a  man,  or 
a  woman,  or  a  boy,  with  cards  to  give  to  every  voter  to  remind  him 
to  vote  on  this  proposition.  As  a  result  of  the  pre-election  cam- 
paign and  the  work  done  on  election  day,  by  a  majority  of  over 
twenty-eight  hundred  the  people  of  Fayette  County  declared  them- 
selves in  favor  of  taking  steps  necessary  to  stamp  out  this  scourge.* 

And  the  state  commission  wrote  later  of  the  same 
campaign: 

More  anti-tuberculosis  work  has  been  done  in  Fayette  County 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  State  outside  of  Louisville.     Conditions 
*  Lexington  Herald,  February  24,  1913.         'Ibid.,  November  11,  1913. 


134        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

here  were  particularly  advantageous.  A  petition  for  the  election 
was  duly  signed  by  residents  of  the  county  and  filed,  and  the  Com- 
mission began  work  in  September.  Its  moving  picture  exhibit 
covered  the  outskirts  of  the  county.  Later,  the  car  exhibit  reached 
Lexington,  and  one  or  two  other  points.  During  the  two  weeks' 
sojourn  in  Lexington  lectures  were  delivered  evenings  at  points  in 
and  near  the  city.  Miss  Chloe  Jackson,  who  had  organized  and 
conducted  the  work  of  the  visiting  nurses  for  three  years,  had  been 
hired  by  the  Commission,  and  was  retained  in  Fayette  County  for 
September  and  the  first  half  of  October  by  an  agreement  with  the 
Fayette  County  Tubercujosis  Association  whereby  her  salary  was 
divided  between  the  two  bodies.  During  this  period  she  .trained 
a  new  nurse  for  the  place  and  supervised  the  Commission's  cam- 
paign. About  8,000  people  were  reached  by  her  lectures.  In 
addition,  a  mass  meeting  was  held  in  Lexington  at  which  the  chief 
speakers  were  Dr.  J.  A.  Stucky,  of  Lexington;  Professor  Severance 
Burrage,  of  IndianapoHs;  Miss  Chloe  Jackson  and  Mrs.  Desha 
Breckinridge.  The  newspapers  gave  us  an  enthusiastic  support. 
A  special  writer  was  retained  by  the  Commission  for  a  week's  work 
in  preparing  daily  stories  for  the  papers.  Very  little  opposition 
appeared  against  the  measure.  Indeed,  it  is  possible  that  a  favor- 
able vote  might  have  been  obtained  without  the  strenuous  efforts 
of  the  campaign;  but  the  campaign  served  the  purpose  of  bringing 
out  a  much  larger  vote  than  would  otherwise  have  been  possible, 
and  it  gave  definite  expression  to  the  desire  of  the  people  of  the 
county  for  the  building  of  an  adequate  hospital.  After  so  strong 
a  vote,  there  can  be  no  excuse  for  indifference  in  future  years  on  the 
part  of  the  fiscal  authorities  of  the  county.  The  vote  carried  in 
this  county  by  about  four  and  one-half  to  one.^ 

And  again: 

In  Fayette  County,  the  voluntary  Association  has  been  at  work 
since  1905.  The  free  dispensary  for  the  diagnosis  and  treatment 
of  tuberculosis  has  been  maintained  by  them  during  most  of  the 
subsequent  period,  at  618  West  Main  Street,  Lexington.  From 
one  to  four  visiting  nurses  have  been  maintained  by  them  in  active 

^  First  Biennial  Report  of  the  Kentucky,  Tuberculosis  Commission,  p.  41. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      135 

service.  Hundreds  of  cases  of  the  disease  have  been  diagnosed  and 
treated.  The  work  has  been  conducted  with  admirable  efficiency, 
but  the  nurses  knew  that  all  their  efforts  went  for  naught,  when 
their  patients  had  no  place  near  home  where  they  could  be  received 
and  properly  cared  for.  This  message  they  had  sent  broadcast 
through  the  county  and  the  idea  of  the  county  hospital,  although 
the  Fiscal  Court  had  twice  refused  to  take  the  necessary  action  to 
build  one,  was  familiar  to  the  people  of  the  county  and  was  gener- 
ally recognized  as  a  necessity.  The  educational  campaign  of  the 
Commission,  with  its  car  and  moving  picture  exhibit,  and  its  defi- 
nite presentation  of  the  matter  in  hand,  together  with  a  mass  meet- 
ing in  the  city  of  Lexington,  and  general  support  of  the  newspapers 
of  the  city,  served  to  focus  public  attention,  and  a  favorable  vote 
was  naturally  the  result.  The  heavy  majority  indicates  very 
clearly  the  value  of  prolonged  effort.' 

That  was  November,  1913.  The  Board  of  Trustees 
for  the  district  was  duly  constituted^  March  24,  19 14, 
but  time  slipped  by.  In  191 5  the  court  appropriated 
$2,536.35  out  of  its  general  funds  for  a  first  payment  on  a 
tract  of  land  suited  to  the  purposes  of  the  institution 
and  conveniently  located  with  reference  to  the  city  that 
had  been  selected  as  a  site  for  the  proposed  institution. 
And  finally,  on  January  7,  191 6,  after  receiving  a  masterly 
protest^  from  the  Trustees,  asking  a  levy  of  five  cents 
from  which  $21,000  would  be  derived,  a  levy  of  three  cents 
on  the  hundred  dollars  of  taxable  property  was  authorized 
that  brought  in  $17,450.  It  was  already  clear  that  to 
carry  out  any  effective  plan  the  public  grant  would  have 
to  be  supplemented  from  private  sources,  and  again  there 

» Ibid.,  p.  44. 

'  It  was  composed  of  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Combs,  chairman,  Mr.  T.  J.  Tunis, 
Mr.  E.  R.  Bradley,  Mr.  William  Worthington,  Dr.  Josephine  D.  Hunt,  Mrs. 
Wilbur  R.  Smith,  and  MadeUne  McD.  Breckinridge. 

*See  Lexington  Herald,  January  5,  1916. 


136        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

was  the  question  of  the  size  of  the  task  to  be  performed, 
the  proportion  of  the  cost  to  be  borne  by  private  and  from 
public  funds,  the  determination  as  to  the  plans,  and  the 
raising  of  the  money  that  should  come  from  private 
benevolence. 


PLAN  OF   THE   BLUE   GRASS   SANATORIUM 

A — Administration  Building 

B— Children's  Building 

C — Service  Building 

D — Pavilions  for  adult  patients 


The  cost  for  construction  according  to  the  plans 
finally  decided  on  was  estimated  at  $61,000.  These 
plans  provided  for  the  care  of  fifty-six  patients.  There 
was  to  be  an  administrative  building  for  officers  with 
living  quarters  for  the  superintendent  and  staff;  a  chil- 
dren's building,  for  which  Aunt  Mag  gave  $10,000  in 
memory  of  her  father,  to  accommodate  twenty-four  chil- 
dren; and  a  service  building  with  provision  for  thirty- 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      137 

two  patients.  After  the  grant  from  the  county,  building 
operations  were  begun. 

The  cornerstones  of  two  buildings,  the  children's 
building  and  the  service  building,  were  laid  with  gay 
celebrations  November  15,  1916.  At  this  celebration 
there  was  a  special  tribute  to  Dr.  William  Adair  McDowell 
in  whose  memory  the  gift  of  $10,000  had  been  given  by 
his  daughter;  and  the  children  from  the  schools  of  Lexing- 
ton planted  trees  given  by  generous  persons  who  had 
been  interested  in  the  tree-planting  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Civic  League's  Arbor  Day  programs,  and  again 
the  general  interest  of  the  community  was  focused  on 
the  undertaking. 

It  was  estimated,  as  has  been  said,  that  the  con- 
struction of  the  sanatorium  would  cost  $61,000;  and 
when  the  Fiscal  Court's  attitude  in  spite  of  the  over- 
whelming majority  in  the  election  of  1913  and  of  the  fact 
that  the  Democratic  party  had  in  19 16  included  this 
development  as  one  to  be  favored  should  they  win  the 
election — when  that  attitude  became  clear,  Madge  decided 
again,  as  in  the  case  of  Lincoln  School,  that  private 
funds  must  supplement  the  public  appropriation,  and 
again  she  undertook  to  raise  the  needed  amoimt. 

There  were  questions  raised.  Why  private  funds? 
The  question  might  rather  be  like  that  question  put 
by  another  great  champion  of  the  rights  of  childhood 
to  members  of  Congress  who  were  indifferent  to  proposals 
for  saving  the  lives  of  mothers  and  babies:  "Why  do 
members  of  Congress  want  mothers  and  babies  to  die 
needlessly?"  Why  do  governors  and  fiscal  courts  want 
so  many  citizens  of  Kentucky,  of  Fayette  County,  to 
die  needlessly  ?    Perhaps  she  could  never  have  answered 


138        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

that.    But  she  could  and  did  answer,  "Why  Private 
Funds?"  she  said: 

I  have  been  asked,  "Why  Private  Funds?" — to  answer  the 
question  being  put  to  our  Tuberculosis  workers  why  private  funds 
should  be  contributed  for  a  sanatorium  for  Fayette  County  ?  The 
best  answer  I  can  make  is  this: 

The  Sanatorium  Board  has  now  waited  nearly  four  years  since 
the  people  of  Fayette  County  voted  three  to  one  for  the  Tuber- 
culosis Sanatorium  to  be  established.  In  these  four  years  the 
County  has  contributed  an  average  of  less  than  $10,000  a  year,  and 
one  citizen  of  Fayette  County — who,  by  the  way,  is  deprived  of  any 
say-so  as  to  how  the  taxes  of  Fayette  County  shall  be  spent  or  who 
shall  spend  them — has  given  $10,000.  We  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  poHcy  of  "watchful  waiting"  will  never  get  a  sana- 
torium out  of  Fayette  County.  We  believe  that  the  way  to  resume 
specie  payments  is  to  resume,  and  that  the  way  to  start  a  Sana- 
torium in  Fayette  County  is  to  start  it. 

If  $55,000  is  raised  this  week  the  Sanatorium  will  be  opened 
within  two  weeks  and  will  run,  with  a  capacity  of  50  patients,  until 
next  January.  The  central  buildings,  administration  and  service, 
are  good  for  200  patients,  and  the  capacity  of  the  institution  can  be 
increased  merely  by  the  addition  of  pavilions,  which  are  the  cheap- 
est form  of  structure  used.  The  plant  once  built,  the  County  must 
maintain  it.  We  believe  it  is  worth  $55,000  to  the  citizens  of 
Fayette  County  to  get  it  started. 

We  have  been  told  by  Judge  Bullock  that  the  County  has  given 
in  these  last  four  years  all  that  it  was  able  to  give  for  this  purpose. 
He  says  with  the  county  tax  Umited  by  the  constitution  to  50  cents 
on  the  $100  of  taxable  property,  and  the  free  roads  to  maintain, 
Fayette  County  has  done  all  she  can  for  the  indigent  who  are  dying 
in  their  homes  of  tuberculosis  and  for  the  indigent  who  have  the 
disease  and  may  be  cured. 

The  County  for  a  number  of  years  has  given  $2,500  annually 
to  the  Pubhc  Health  Nursing  Association  (formerly  the  Anti- 
Tuberculosis  Society).  Last  year  this  was  cut  down  to  $1,750,  five 
hundred  of  which  was  put  into  a  machine  that  more  county  patients 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      139 

could  be  reached.  This  year,  in  view  of  its  appropriation  to  the 
Sanatorium,  the  County  has  cut  off  the  Public  Health  Nursing 
Association  entirely  and  is  giving  nothing  to  it.  The  nurses  of  the 
Association,  however,  have  made  from  June  ist  to  July  ist  of  this 
year,  406  visits  to  county  patients  outside  the  city  limits,  most  of 
these  patients  being  sufferers  from  tuberculosis.  We  may  not  all 
agree  with  Judge  Bullock  that  the  proper  division  of  county  funds 
has  been  made;  but  whether  or  not  we  agree  with  him,  the  fact 
remains  that  there  is  no  hope  of  any  more  money  from  the  County 
for  the  Sanatorium  until  next  year. 

Undoubtedly  the  County  had  before  it  a  big  business  problem, 
with  what  were  toll  roads  formerly,  made  free  roads  and  the  auto- 
mobile invented  to  wear  them  out  rapidly.  If  Judge  Bullock  is 
right,  if  Fayette  County  cannot  maintain  roads  for  those  who  ride 
in  automobiles  and  provide,  as  the  law  says  she  must,  for  her  sick 
and  indigent,  then,  as  I  see  it,  it  is  up  to  those  who  ride  in  auto- 
mobiles to  put  in  a  little  to  care  for  the  poor  and  sick  of  the  county. 

Fifty-five  thousand  dollars  is  not  a  large  sum  for  the  citizens 
of  a  county  so  rich  as  this.  To  give  it  is  a  good  business  invest- 
ment, if  thereby  they  insure  the  maintenance  of  such  an  institution 
for  the  future.  And  that  is  exactly  what  the  persons  do  who  con- 
tribute to  this  $55,000.^ 

She  demanded  of  the  rich  from  their  surplus,  of  the 
poor  as  an  insurance: 

Every  intelligent  working  man  knows  the  value  of  health 
insurance.  In  many  of  the  European  countries,  notably  in  Ger- 
many the  efficient,  before  the  war,  a  system  was  in  vogue  which  said 
to  the  working  man,  "  In  the  days  of  sunshine  when  you  are  getting 
regular  wages  for  your  work,  put  a  little  of  your  wages  in  an  insur- 
ance fund  and  your  employer  will  put  in  a  little  more  and  the  state 
wiU  add  a  little  more  to  that,  and  when  the  rainy  day  comes  when 
you  can  not  work,  there  will  be  something  to  take  care  of  you. " 

This  is  practically  the  system  which  the  present  campaign  for 
providing  contributions  to  a  tuberculosis  sanatorium  exemplifies. 
If  every  working  man  in  Lexington  will  give  a  little  part  of  his 

'  Lexington  Herald,  July  i,  191 7. 


i4o"       MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

present  wages  to  make  up  $55,000,  he  can  know  that  his  employer 
is  also  giving  a  larger  sum,  though  perhaps  a  smaller  proportion  of 
his  income,  and  he  can  know  that  he  is  insuring  an  institution  here- 
after to  be  maintained  absolutely  from  public  funds,  to  which  if  his 
health  breaks  down  he  may  go  to  be  cured.  For  the  working  people 
of  this  community  to  contribute  to  the  present  fund  is  a  first  class 
investment. 

The  present  law  concerning  county  sanatoria  for  tuberculosis 
was  drawn  with  the  full  knowledge  that  it  would  be  difficult  for  any 
county  to  provide  the  proper  plant  out  of  one  year's  levy.  The  law 
was  therefore  more  flexible  as  to  the  time  in  which  the  plant  would 
be  provided,  though  the  intention  was  very  clear  that  at  least  a 
small  workable  plant  should  be  provided  in  not  less  than  two  levies. 
The  counties  such  as  Fayette  where  a  vote  of  the  people  has  already 
been  taken  calling  for  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  a  county 
sanatorium,  have  taken  advantage  of  this  looseness  in  the  law. 
Fayette  County  in  four  years  has  failed  to  provide  a  sufficient  plant 
to  take  care  of  her  tuberculosis  problem.  But  the  present  law  is 
explicit  that  the  plant  once  started,  the  county  must  maintain  it. 

If  by  an  addition  of  even  a  considerable  portion  of  his  means  a 
working  man  can  this  week  insure  that  Fayette  County  shall  never 
again  be  in  the  disgraceful  situation  she  is  now  in,  with  not  a  bed 
for  a  patient  with  a  disease  from  which  there  were  one  hundred  and 
forty-two  deaths  in  Fayette  County  last  year  he  will  undoubtedly 
make  a  good  investment.' 

And  again  she  passed  the  goal  she  set  herself  to  gain. 
It  was  by  raising  the  very  considerable  sum  of  $55,000, 
with  the  world  at  war,  that  she  asked  the  community 
to  celebrate  the  nation's  holiday  in  191 7.  It  was  to  be 
a  two  weeks'  campaign,  and  at  the  end  almost  $57,000 
was  pledged.^"  How  was  it  done  ?  There  were  all  the 
incidents  that  had  been  found  successful  in  any  "drive." 
She  was  a  genius  at  pubHcity  and  organization,  "yet 
asking  naught  for  herself."    There  were  the  Fourth  of 

^Lexington  Herald,  July  12,  1917.  *$s6,78o. 


TWO  OF  THE  PAVILIONS   AT  THE   BLUE  GRASS  SANATORIUM 


THE  CHILDREN'S  BUILDING  AT  THE  BLUE  GRASS  SANATORIUM 

This  building  was  erected  by  "Aunt  Mag"  in  memory  of  her  father,  Dr.  William  Adair 
McDowell. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      141 

July  orations  on  the  new  revolution  against  the  tyrant 
who  was  taking  tolls  in  lives,  not  stamps,  there  were 
women's  committees  and  men's  committees  and  county 
committees,  luncheons,  dinners,  and  teas — every  challenge, 
every  competition,  every  appeal — and  all  for  the  com- 
munity's chance  to  save  its  own  lives. 

So  there  the  broad  acres  stretch  out,  the  buildings 
stand,  patients  are  cared  for,  and  her  work  goes  on. 

Then,  there  was  the  state  work.  The  tragedy  of  the 
earlier  bills  has  been  related.  But  there  could  be  no 
permanent  defeat  for  her  while  she  was  alive. 

The  act  of  191 2  that  both  went  through  the  legislature 
and  was  signed  by  the  governor  (Governor  McCreary) 
provided,  as  has  been  said,  for  the  creation  of  a  continuous, 
unpaid  commission  of  seven  men  and  women,  of  whom 
two  should  be  physicians,  appointed  by  the  governor.' 
The  field  of  work  designated  by  the  statute  covered,  in 
brief,  investigation  with  reference  to  the  disease  in  all  its 
effects  on  community  life,  popular  education  concerning  it, 
and  the  encouragement  of  provision  in  the  way  of  sana- 
toria, clinics,  dispensaries,  and  for  the  care,  treatment  and 
cure  of  its  victims.  It  did  not,  as  the  earlier  acts  had 
done,  provide  for  the  establishment  of  a  state  sanatorium. 

She  was  appointed  on  that  Commission  as  the  vice- 
president,  the  governor  being  president,  and  served  on 
it  as  long  as  she  felt  that  her  membership  on  the  board* 

*  Acts  of  Kentucky,  191 2,  chap.  iii. 

'  The  other  members  of  the  first  board  were  Miss  Tevis  Camden,  of  Wood- 
ford County;  Dr.  W.  V.  Williams,  of  Frankfort;  Dr.  H.  S.  Keller,  of  Frank- 
fort; Dr.  Everett  Morris,  of  Sulphur;  Dr.  R.  T.  Yoe,  of  Louisville;  and  Mr. 
Bernard  Flexner  who  had  labored  with  her  through  all  these  efforts.  He, 
however,  was  unable  to  accept  the  appointment,  and  Mr.  C.  L.  Adler,  of  Louis- 
ville, was  appointed  in  his  place.  See  First  Biennial  Report  of  the  Kentucky 
Tuberculosis  Commission. 


142        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

served  the  cause  for  which  she  had  so  long  labored. 
She  resigned  from  the  board  on  August  21,  191 6. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  review  the  work  of  the  board 
during  her  presence  on  it.  The  resources  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health  had  been  increased;  there  had  been 
created  a  bureau  of  vital  statistics  that  could  do  the 
required  investigational  work.  The  Tuberculosis  Com- 
mission was  therefore  able  to  devote  its  efforts  to  publicity 
and  educational  work  and  to  stimulating  the  creation 
of  local  districts  and  the  formation  of  local  associations. 
This  it  did.  But  months  had  passed  before  the  appropria- 
tion of  $15,000  carried  by  the  act  became  available.' 
When  money  was  at  last  available,  the  most  recent 
devices  in  educational  work  of  this  character  were  made 
use  of — the  exhibit  car,  the  moving  picture,  the  lecture 
at  teachers'  institutes,  the  special  campaign  in  counties 
that  were  ripe  for  it,  and  the  organization  of  a  nursing 
staff,  co-operation  with  such  other  agencies  as  the  State 
Board  of  Health  and  the  Red  Cross  in  its  Christmas 
stamp  sale.  The  problems  are  the  old  problems — the 
excessive  death-rate  among  the  colored  population,  the 
special  work  with  the  children — problems  that  were  in 
the  minds  of  those  hopeful  persons  who  organized  in 
Lexington  in  December  of  1905.  The  Commission  was 
attacked  by  the  state  inspector  for  spending  a  large 
sum  of  money  in  a  short  time,  but  the  defense  was 
not  difficult  to  frame.  The  Commission  would  have 
felt  guilty  had  they  failed  to  use,  in  the  war  in 
which  they  were  engaged,  all  the  resources  at  their 
command. 

^  This  was  due  to  some  controversy  as  to  its  validity  which  was  involved 
in  a  case  already  before  the  courts. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS      143 

Her  contribution  to  the  work  of  the  Commission  was 
like  the  contribution  she  made  to  every  group  with  which 
she  served,  knowing  what  was  going  on  everywhere 
in  the  tuberculosis  world,  hunting  possible  candidates 
for  the  positions  to  be  filled,  negotiating  for  the  service 
what  would  be  largest  for  the  state.  Perhaps  a  few  of 
her  letters  will  sufficiently  illustrate  her  relation  to  the 
work  through  the  Commission.  It  is  not  possible  to 
review  in  detail  the  questions  that  arose.  Four  letters 
will  be  quoted,  three  showing  her  relation  to  other  mem- 
bers of  the  commission,  and  one,  her  letter  of  resignation 
in  August,  1916.  For  in  that  month,  after  Governor 
Stanley  had  taken  office,  when  the  terms  of  certain 
members  of  the  board  had  expired,  there  arose  the 
question  of  the  appointment  of  new  members  and  of  the 
selection  of  employees,  and  it  became  clear  that  Governor 
Stanley  intended  to  control  the  board  and  that  service 
on  the  board  would  therefore  be  too  costly  for  the  results 
to  be  gained  from  it.  She  and,  with  one  exception,  all 
members  of  the  earlier  board  resigned  and  left  him  free.' 

The  first  letter  is  to  her  cousin,  Tevis  Camden, 
younger  than  she  and  not  strong,  but  with  few  distracting 
interests  to  divert  her  from  such  public  service  as  she 
should  find  interesting  and  profitable.  The  subject  was 
the  selection  of  an  executive  secretary  to  be  made  at  an 
approaching  meeting  of  the  Commission.  The  selection 
of  the  agents,  visitors,  and  employees  of  any  organization 
of  which  she  was  a  member  was  always  a  subject  to  which 
she  devoted  much  thought,  time,  and  effort;  for  she 
always  knew  what  the  duties  were,  what  the  standards  of 

'In  19 18,  the  board  was  merged  with  the  Health  Department  as  the 
Bureau  of  Tuberculosis.    See  Acts  of  IQ18,  chap.  65,  sees,  i  a  and  4,  p.  290. 


144        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

efficiency  were,  where  good  people  were  to  be.  found  if 
there  were  any  especially  qualified  in  the  particular  field 
under  consideration.  She  also  knew  what  salaries  were 
paid  in  other  communities  and  what  levels  of  training 
and  ability  could  be  expected  for  the  salary  level  pre- 
vailing in  Kentucky.  In  the  case  of  the  Tuberculosis 
Commission  the  subject  was  especially  puzzling  because 
the  best  training  and  skill  obtainable  were  possessed  by  a 
woman,  a  highly  trained,  graduate  registered  nurse  with 
rare  organizing  and  publicity  ability.  Perhaps  if  Madge 
had  not  been  so  conspicuously  identified  with  the  suffrage 
cause  she  would  have  felt  freer  to  support  the  woman 
who  was  the  better  candidate.  But  she  was  keen  to  safe- 
guard her  service  on  the  Commission  from  any  appearance 
of  being  used  for  any  other  motive,  however  legitimate  in 
itself,  than  promoting  the  contest  with  the  white  plague. 
She,  therefore,  as  appears  from  this  first  letter  yielded  at 
first  on  the  subject  to  the  political  arguments  of  her 
associates  on  the  Commission.  She  regretted  this,  how- 
ever, and  determined  not  to  yield  again  and  is  trying  to 
persuade  her  young  cousin  to  stand  with  her  in  the  effort 
to  secure  the  selection  of  the  better  candidate.  On 
June  15,  1 91 6,  before  going  to  Saranac  for  the  summer, 
Madge  wrote: 

My  dear  Tevis: 

I  go  to  Louisville  tomorrow  to  talk  with  Mr.  Adler  and  Dr.  Yoe 
and  to  get  what  further  facts  I  may  concerning  Dr.  X.,  possibly  to 
talk  to  him  also.  I  have  already  talked  with  several  persons  in 
Lexington  who  have  some  acquaintance  with  Dr.  X.,  and  I 
have  to  admit  that  I  am  further  confirmed  in  my  prejudice 
against  him,  though  I  haven't  gotten  yet  a  great  deal  of  first-hand 
information. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS       145 

It  would,  however,  seem  to  me  hunting  trouble  when  I  know 
how  excellent  a  person  Miss  Y.  is  to  deliberately  get  some  one  of 
whom  there  is  a  great  deal  of  doubt  to  say  the  least.  I  will  write 
you  again  after  my  visit  to  Louisville,  but  in  the  meantime  I  am  so 
strongly  impressed  with  the  fact  that  I  should  make  a  more  earnest 
plea  to  you  than  I  did  the  other  day  to  stand  with  us  in  the  support 
of  Miss  Y.,  and  certainly  not  to  pledge  yourself  to  the  Governor. 
He  will,  I  imagine,  return  to  Kentucky  by  Sunday  and  you  may  see 
him  immediately.  I  wish  you  would  talk  with  your  mother  and 
get  her  judgment  as  to  your  pledging  yourself  to  me  or  to  Miss  Y. 
as  you  choose  to  put  it  before  seeing  the  Governor.  He  is  a  pretty 
smart  man  and  a  pretty  powerful  man  and  there  would  undoubtedly 
be  a  considerable  protection  in  teUing  him  that  your  judgment  is  so 
strongly  for  Miss  Y.,  due  to  what  you  had  heard  of  her  last  year, 
that  you  sent  your  proxy  to  vote  for  her,  that  you  have  had  no 
reason  to  change  your  mind,  but  that  the  additional  facts  coming 
in  to  us  about  her  and  the  experience  of  the  Board  last  year  with 
a  man  who  had  not  done  just  this  work  before  had  further  con- 
firmed you  into  believing  that  she  is  the  desirable  candidate. 

The  difference  of  $1500,  at  least  in  the  salaries  asked  by  Dr.  X. 
and  Miss  Y.,  other  things  being  equal,  I  think  ought  to  determine 
us  in  Miss  Y.'s  favor.  For  the  great  need  is  to  get  more  visiting 
nurses  in  more  counties  in  Kentucky.  It  is  on  the  success  of  that 
and  the  wide-spread  success  of  it  alone,  I  believe,  that  we  can  hope 
both  for  the  continuance  of  the  Commission  appropriation  by  the 
coming  Legislature*,  and  to  that  end  I  feel  we  should  not  waste 
$1,500  another  year. 

Of  course  I  feel  that  other  things  are  not  in  the  least  equal, 
that  the  lower  priced  candidate  is  the  one  candidate  of  whom  we 
can  feel  quite  certain,  and  that  the  high  priced  candidate  we  have 
every  reason  to  feel  very  uncertain  about,  even  if  the  infor- 
mation we  hear  about  him  is  not  sufficient  to  make  us  certain  the 
wrong  way. 

I  appreciate  why  you  do  not  want  to  trouble  your  father  about 
the  thing,  but  if  your  mother  is  better  now  than  she  was  when  I  was 
down  there,  I  feel  sure  she  would  want  to  advise  with  you.  I  am 
planning  to  see  the  Governor  myself  before  the  meeting,  and  I  admit 


146        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

that  I  am  pretty  scared  to  do  it,  because  I  realize  so  well  how  much 
smarter  he  is  than  I  am.  I  am  going  to  brace  myself  up  with 
promises  to  myself  to  vote  for  Miss  Y.  and  all  kinds  of  reinforce- 
ments before  I  go. 

I  am  not  very  much  moved  by  the  idea  that  it  is  necessary  to 
select  a  man  whom  the  Governor  chooses.  We  found  it  wasn't 
during  the  last  administration  and  I  still  think  that  we  were  exactly 
right  about  it  and  that  it  would  have  been  suicidal  to  our  decision 
to  have  employed  Dr.  A.  B.  in  the  beginning  rather  than  French, 
who  did  a  great  deal  for  us  which  we  could  not  have  done 
for  ourselves.  The  Governor  never  does  take  as  much  interest  in 
the  work  or  really  exert  as  much  influence  as  those  members  of  the 
Commission  who  are  earnestly  concerned  for  the  advancement  of 
the  Tuberculosis  work.  I  do  not  believe  Governor  Stanley  would 
interfere  with  us  if  we  had  once  elected  our  candidate;  in  fact,  I 
beUeve  Miss  Y.  would  win  him  over  and  I  think  she  would  make 
good  his  protestations  that  he  is  earnestly  interested  in  Tuber- 
culosis work  and  that  this  is  his  one  and  only  motive.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  we  should  give  in  and  get  Dr.  X. — and  as  you  know 
there  is  a  doubt  as  to  whether  Governor  Stanley  really  wants  Dr. 
X.  or  is  only  pledged  to  him  for  political  reasons — I  am  pretty  sure 
Dr.  Keller's  summing  up  is  correct,  that  all  the  old  employees  would 
be  turned  off  and  others  engaged  for  political  reasons.  This  is  the 
situation  that  seems  to  me  quite  intolerable,  that  we  have  avoided 
by  the  most  strenuous  exertion  during  all  the  years  of  the  Com- 
mission's life,  which  certainly  have  been  years  of  struggle  and  that 
I  think  as  long  as  we  are  on  the  Commission  we  should  struggle  to 
still  further  prevent. 

Cordially  yours, 

Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge 

In  the  second  letter  she  is  appeaUng  to  a  fellow- 
member  of  the  Commission  responsible  for  the  selection 
of  the  person  best  qualified  for  work  to  be  done.  On 
June  20,  1 916,  she  writes  to  Dr.  Dunning  Wilson,  of 
Louisville,  Kentucky: 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS       147 

My  dear  Dr.  Wilson: 

....  I  hear  of  a  candidate  whom  I  think  I  could  under  no 
circumstances  be  willing  to  support,  judging  from  the  news  I  have 
gotten  concerning  him.  It  is  about  this  I  desired  to  speak  to  you 
and  also  about  another  applicant — a  woman — for  the  position,  of 
whom  I  am  greatly  in  favor. 

I  last  year  yielded  my  preference  for  her  really  because  of  Dr. 
Keller's  desire  that  we  should  have  a  man,  because  I  felt  that  Dr. 
Keller  was  having  the  whole  bag  to  hold  and  though  I  believed  that 
she  was  the  safest  and  best  candidate  we  had,  and  we  could  have 
gotten  her  at  a  very  much  lower  salary  than  the  salary  desired  by 
any  of  the  men  candidates,  I  yielded  the  point.  I  am  sure  I  made 
a  mistake  and  I  think  Dr.  Keller  will  now  agree  also  that  I  did. 
This  year  I  believe  I  owe  it  to  the  Commission  as  well  as  myself  to 
act  on  my  own  best  judgment,  and  of  course  I  should  like  to  be  able 
to  talk  the  thing  over  with  the  other  members  of  the  Commission 
and  give  them  the  reasons  that  actuate  me. 

I  do  not  know  whether  your  vote  is  pledged  or  whether  your 
mind  is  made  up  on  the  situation  of  the  Secretary,  but  I  should  like 
to  have  you  consider  her  as  a  possibility.  I  am  enclosing  you  some 
letters  of  recommendation  of  her  that  I  got  last  year  and  I  have  also 
suggested  that  she  put  in  a  formal  application,  sending  further 
letters  that  would  give  in  detail  something  of  the  remarkable 
health  work  that  I  think  she  has  done.  She  spoke  at  the  teachers' 
institutes  last  summer  and  was  so  satisfactory  that  without  ques- 
tion the  Commission  agreed  to  take  her  at  an  advanced  salary  for 
this  summer. 

She  succeeded  in  getting  one  of  the  first,  I  believe  the  first,  con- 
solidated school  under  our  County  School  Board  Law.  She  trans- 
ported pupils  under  construction  of  that  law  and  later  got  a  piece 
of  legislation  setting  aside  any  doubt  on  the  subject  of  using  the 
school  fund  for  that  purpose.  They  now  have  a  number  of  con- 
solidated schools,  six  I  believe.  She  has  recently  gotten  medical 
inspection  in  all  the  rural  schools  of  the  county,  which  does  not 
exist,  I  understand,  in  any  other  county  in  the  state.  She  has 
gotten  a  visiting  nurse  not  only  for  Maysville  but  for  the  county,  a 
free  clinic  there,  and  has  helped  to  create,  and  has  largely  created, 


148        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

I  think,  an  enthusiasm  for  the  health  work  there  that  is  an  inspira- 
tion and  has  even  been  a  model  to  us  in  this  work  for  the  whole 
state  and  in  one  particular,  for  instance,  has  been  a  model  to  us  in 
Lexington.  In  the  course  of  her  school  work  she  has  dealt  with 
exactly  the  kind  of  hard  headed  Kentuckians  that  we  are  going  to 
have  to  deal  with  continually — the  county  school  boards  and  circuit 
courts.  She  has  been  able  to  bring  a  rural  community  in  Kentucky 
to  a  very  advanced  project  in  educational  and  health  lines.  She 
has  done  considerable  legislative  work  and  has,  I  think,  a  peculiar 
tact  and  abiUty  for  accomplishing  things  through  people,  not  only 
legislation  but  Fiscal  Court  appropriations.  She  has,  of  course, 
every  advantage  in  reaching  the  school  children  and  the  teachers, 
not  only  through  her  long  connection  with  school  work,  but  because 
of  the  high  esteem  in  which  all  the  school  people  hold  her.  I  believe 
the  very  large  part  of  our  work  must  always  be  done  through  the 
school  children  and  the  teacher. 

She  is  wiUing  to  serve  the  first  year  for  a  salary  of  $2,000.  The 
difference  in  the  amount  of  the  salary  we  are  now  paying  will  enable 
us  to  start  considerably  more  visiting  nurse  work  in  the  state.  I 
think  the  health  nurses  whom  we  have  started  in  Kentucky  coun- 
ties are  our  best  testimonial  and  that  if  we  could  come  to  another 
Legislature  with  a  great  many  more  of  these  jewels  in  our 
crown  and  with  the  local  sentiment  for  us,  that  is  inspired  by 
successful  local  work,  our  Commission  would  be  in  no  danger; 
otherwise  I  believe  it  will  be  in  considerable  danger.  She  is 
expert  in  newspaper  publicity  work  and  she  is  an  excellent 
administrator. 

In  short,  I  believe  her  to  be  superior  to  any  man  whom  we  have 
employed  either  since  we  have  been  a  State  Commission  or  pre- 
viously as  a  State  Association,  for  just  the  work  that  has  to  be  done 
in  Kentucky.  And  personally  I  am  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  all 
the  Lord  gives  you  to  go  by  is  your  own  reason  and  best  judgment, 
and  when  you  yield  these  to  somebody  else's  prejudices  that  you 
deserve  what  you  get.  I  have  certainly  gotten  it  in  the  neck  and 
next  time  I  am  going  to  try  to  vote  as  conscientiously  as  possible 
myself,  without  regard  to  somebody  else's  prejudices.  I  fear  a  few 
of  them  will  exist. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS       149 

I  was  very  sorry  that  it  was  obligatory  for  me  to  be  away  from 
home  the  last  meeting  of  the  Commission,  but  there  seemed  no  way 
to  avoid  it  and  I  felt  pretty  sure  that  the  situation  would  develop 
that  did  develop,  namely  that  there  were  not  votes  enough  to  elect 
any  one  candidate  and  that  really  there  was  some  gain  in  having 
the  issue  come  up  and  then  having  a  time  for  our  Commissioners 
to  confer  together  about  the  situation,  and  this  I  have  been 
anxious  to  do,  not  only  with  the  old,  but  with  the  new  Commis- 
sioners. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  and  satisfaction  to  welcome  you  to 
the  Board.  It  is  a  comforting  thing  that  the  new  appointments 
have  been  of  people  whose  interests  in  public  health  work  cannot 
be  questioned,  whose  motives  cannot  be  questioned,  and  certainly 
in  your  case,  whose  ability  in  the  matter  has  been  fully  proven. 

Hoping  to  have  a  talk  with  you,  I  am 

Cordially  yours, 

Madeline  McDowell  Brecblinridge 

Similarly,  on  July  12,  1916,  she  writes  to  Dr.  U.  V. 
Williams,  of  Frankfort,  Kentucky: 

Lexington,  Ky. 
July  12,  1916 
My  dear  Dr.  Williams: 

I  want  to  repeat  in  black  and  white,  so  that  I  may  be  sure  you 
understand,  the  answer  to  your  questions  of  the  other  day.  You 
wanted  to  know  why  I  sent  my  proxy  to  Mr.  Adler  instead  of  to 
you.  In  the  first  place  I  was  not  wilUng  to  send  my  proxy  to  vote 
for  any  candidate,  which  was  what  you  asked,  nor  could  I  have 
asked  Miss  Camden's  nor  could  I  have  gotten  it,  to  vote  for  any 
candidate  at  that  meeting. 

The  only  proxy  I  sent  was  a  vote  to  postpone  election  till  the 
called  meeting.  This  I  had  sent  to  Mr.  Adler,  though  it  seems  not 
in  correct  form,  in  answer  to  a  letter  he  had  written  which  had 
reached  me  in  New  York  a  week  or  more  before  I  reached  Chicago, 
or  heard  anything  from  you.  He  wrote  asking  if  it  wouldn't  be 
best  to  ask  that  the  June  meeting  be  postponed.    I  wrote  him  that 


I50        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

I  did  not  think  it  ought  to  be  postponed  because  of  the  accounts, 
that  I  would  be  glad  to  send  my  proxy  to  vote  to  postpone  the 
election  to  the  called  meeting,  but  not  to  vote  for  any  candidate. 
That  was  merely  in  the  body  of  a  letter,  so  I  sent  that  same  proxy 
again  from  Chicago  by  telegraph  and  naturally  sent  it  to  him,  since 
I  had  already  told  him  that  I  would  like  him  to  cast  my  proxy  to 
postpone  the  election. 

I  had  had  no  opportunity  to  confer  with  any  of  you  about  the 
election  before  I  left  home.  I  was  not  willing  to  vote  for  Mr.  Z.'s 
re-election,  for  whatever  his  qualities,  I  distinctly  did  not  and  do 
not  think  he  has  been  a  success  in  our  work  or  that  we  are  justified 
in  paying  the  salary  necessary  to  get  him.  I  was  not  willing  to  vote 
for  Dr.  X.  with  the  information  I  had  about  him  and  it  seemed  to 
me  the  only  thing  I  could  do  was  to  vote  to  postpone  until  we  had 
had  a  chance  to  confer. 

I  telegraphed  you  from  Chicago  to  this  effect:  that  I  wets  not 
willing  to  send  proxy  for  any  candidate  and  had  already  sent  proxy 
to  Mr.  Adler  to  vote  for  postponement  of  election.  I  paid  for  the 
telegram  myself  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  have 
reached  you. 

I  had  previously  telegraphed  you  for  certain  inforrnation,  for  I 
was  anxious  to  see  whether  there  was  any  chance  of  an  election  at 
that  meeting.  I  did  not  believe  there  was.  For  I  did  not  think 
of  your  going  into  an  agreement  to  elect  the  Governor's  candidate 
in  order  to  get  a  month  or  two  more  for  Mr.  Z. 

As  you  know,  I  voted  for  Mr.  Z.  as  your  candidate  last  summer, 
giving  up  my  own  candidate,  who  I  felt  was  competent  and  could 
be  had  at  a  much  lower  salary,  and  yielded  the  matter  absolutely 
to  you  and  Dr.  Keller. 

As  you  know,  as  soon  as  I  got  home  I  came  to  see  you  and  said 
at  once,  as  I  had  said  to  Mrs.  Z.  in  Chicago,  that  I  would  be  glad 
to  vote  to  continue  Mr.  Z.  to  the  end  of  his  year,  which  was  as  I 
gathered  from  her  all  that  he  desired.  She  said  he  did  not  wish 
to  be  put  out  summarily,  but  wanted  a  chance  to  resign.  I  did  not 
try  to  drive  a  bargain,'  but  told  you  what  I  was  wiUing  to  do  in  jus- 
tice to  what  I  could  conscientiously.  I  cannot  see  now  but  that 
Mr.  Z.  simply  wants  to  hold  on  whether  it  is  the  will  of   the 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS       151 

Commission  or  not  and  does  not  care  whether  he  ruins  the  work 
of  the  Commission  for  the  future  or  not.  You  said  to  me  just  as 
freely  that  you  could  vote  for  Miss  Y.  on  the  second  ballot,  and 
Dr.  Yoe,  Miss  Camden,  Mr.  Adler  and  I  are  still  absolutely  unable 
to  explain  your  present  attitude.  Apparently  my  being  willing  to 
yield  to  your  wishes  and  preference  a  year  ago  and  again  being 
wilUng  to  yield  to  yours  and  Mr.  Z.'s  desire  that  he  should  hold  on 
to  the  end  of  his  year  only  makes  you  feel  that  having  driven  me 
that  far  you  can  drive  me  a  little  further.  Now  I  do  not  believe 
this  is  your  natural  instinct  or  the  way  you  usually  play.  I  would 
like  you  to  think  it  over  and  see  if  you  think  it  is  a  fair  way  of 
dealing  with  a  person  who  has  played  fair  with  you  for  a  number  of 
years. 

As  to  the  matter  of  asking  that  Dr.  Yoe  and  Mr.  Adler  be  made 
a  Committee  on  our  Tuberculosis  plans,  my  only  idea  was  to  pick 
two  persons  in  one  town  and  I  had  supposed  that  they  should  be 
members  of  the  Commission.  I  was  glad  to  add  Mr.  Z.  when  Dr. 
Dixon  suggested  it,  but  it  didn't  occur  to  me  first  to  make  him 
and  you  a  committee  any  more  than  it  occurred  to  me  to  make 
French  a  member  of  the  Committee  to  approve  the  site.  You  and 
Dr.  Keller  were  in  the  same  town  then,  it  was  convenient  for  you 
to  come,  and  this  time  as  that  time  I  felt  that  any  two  members  of 
the  old  Commission  would  give  a  fair  and  liberal  judgment  in  the 
matter.  It  didn't  occur  to  me  there  was  any  honor  in  the  thing, 
merely  that  I  was  asking  work  of  two  members  of  the  Committee 
and  I  chose  two  members  living  in  one  town  in  order  to  avoid  delay. 
I  have  been  working  very  hard  to  get  these  plans  to  the  contractors 
and  am  staying  here  against  the  doctor's  plain  orders  and  my  own 
knowledge  as  to  the  good  of  my  health  in  hopes  of  getting  in  the 
bids  that  the  work  may  not  be  delayed  during  my  absence.  I  cer- 
tainly did  not  mean  to  slight  or  offend  you  in  any  way  in  this  matter 
and  should  have  been  delighted  to  have  you  on  the  Committee 
to  inspect  plans.  I  am  glad  to  make  this  explanation,  for 
I  have  always  been  friendly  to  you  since  we  have  worked 
together  as  members  of  the  Commission  and  though  you  may  not 
any  longer  be  friendly  to  me  I  desire  you  to  know  that  my  action 
toward  you  has  always  been  guided  by  friendliness. 


152         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

I  have  put  the  work  and  the  welfare  of  the  Commission  above 
the  interests  of  any  particular  candidate,  and  I  have  to  continue 
to  do  that;  if  the  result  of  the  present  situation  is  as  it  probably  will 
be,  that  the  Governor  elects  his  candidate  and  that  should  be  a  per- 
son for  whom  some  of  us  old  members  are  not  willing  to  assume 
responsibiUty,  we  can  of  course  resign  from  the  Commission  and 
leave  the  Governor  and  those  who  are  satisfied  to  run  the  thing  to 
suit  themselves. 

I  beUeve  that  we  old  members  of  the  Commission  should  get 
ready  and  answer  the  report  of  the  inspector,  showing  its  absurdities 
and  clearing  our  record.  This  we  can  put  into  the  hands  of  each 
of  the  Commission  members  at  the  next  meeting;  it  will  also  be 
ready*  for  publication  in  case  the  Governor  should  have  the  inspec- 
tor's report  published. 

I  am  not  willing  personally  to  go  out  of  the  state,  perhaps  for 
an  indefinite  period,  without  leaving  the  answer  to  this  ready.  I 
propose  to  go  down  to  Frankfort  next  Saturday,  though  I  can  ill 
spare  the  time,  and  take  on  the  extra  work,  to  work  over  the  books 
and  try  to  get  up  an  answer.  I  have  talked  over  the  telephone 
with  Mr.  Adler,  who  I  presumed  would  be  the  hardest  one  to  get; 
he  says  he  can  go  up  Saturday.  He  will  communicate  with  Dr. 
Yoe  and  I  told  him  that  I  would  write  you  and  Miss  Camden  at 
once.  If  all  old  members  of  the  Commission  cannot  take  part  in 
writing  the  reply,  those  who  cannot  could  make  the  others  a  com- 
mittee to  do  it  and  if  satisfactory  to  all,  we  could  all  sign  it.  Dr. 
Keller  is  willing  to  help  do  the  work  and  perhaps  would  desire  also 
to  sign  the  report.  I  am  presuming  that  you  will  feel  as  we  do 
about  the  necessity  of  defending  our  record. 

I  will  go  down  to  Frankfort  Saturday  on  the  C.  &  O.  probably,  in 
order  to  get  as  long  a  day  as  possible.     I  will  stop  by  your  office  and 
learn  your  desires  in  this  matter  and  if  you  wish  to  have  any  conver- 
sation with  me  about  the  other  matter  we  can  then  have  it. 
Very  truly  yours, 

Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge 

And  then  five  weeks  later  from  Saranac  Lake  she  sent 
in  her  resignation.     The  political  aims  of  the  Governor 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS       153 

are  inconsistent  with  the  public  service  which  it  is  her 
sole  aim  to  render.     She  writes  to  Governor  Stanley: 

Saranac  Lake,  N.Y. 

Governor  A .  O.  Stanley  °  *    ^ 

Frankfort,  Kentucky 

My  dear  Governor  Stanley: 

I  desire  to  tender  my  resignation  as  a  member  of  the  Kentucky 
Tuberculosis  Commission.  For  a  number  of  years  I  have  done 
what  I  could  to  aid  in  the  fight  against  tuberculosis  in  Kentucky. 
As  a  member  of  the  State  Tuberculosis  Association,  as  a  member  of 
the  committee  that  drew  and  worked  for  the  passage  of  the  law 
creating  a  State  Sanatorium  for  Tuberculosis,  finally  passed  in  19 10 
and  vetoed  by  Governor  Willson,  as  a  member  of  the  committee 
that  drew  and  worked  for  the  passage  of  the  law  creating  the  pres- 
ent State  Commission  and  providing  the  legal  machinery  for  the 
establishment  of  county  sanatoria,  I  have  rendered  the  service  I 
could.  When  the  present  law  went  into  effect  a  little  over  four 
years  ago  I  welcomed  the  opportunity  offered  me  to  serve  on  the 
State  Commission  and  to  work,  however  stumblingly,  for  a  public 
education  and  sentiment  that  will  finally  eradicate  tuberculosis 
from  Kentucky.  I  again  felt  honored  in  accepting  reappointment 
on  the  Commission  for  a  four-year  term. 

I  have,  however,  since  the  beginning  of  the  year  been  reluctantly 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  as  a  member  of  the  Commission  I  can 
not  under  existing  circumstances  render  any  service  for  the  tuber- 
culosis cause  commensurate  with  the  effort  entailed.  My  con- 
ception of  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  law,  is,  I  believe,  very 
divergent  from  yours.  As  through  your  power  of  appointment  you 
may  soon  have  an  entirely  harmonious  Commission,  it  seems  wiser 
for  me  to  tender  my  resignation,  leaving  a  place  on  the  Commission 
for  some  one  who  feels  a  stronger  call  to  that  service,  and  myself 
devote  instead  the  same  amount  of  time  and  energy  to  working 
through  other  channels  for  the  eradication  of  tuberculosis  in  Ken- 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

Madeline  McDowell  BRECKiNRrocE 


154         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Between  August,  1916,  and  Thanksgiving,  1920,  she 
was  not  inactive  in  relation  to  tuberculosis,  but  her 
work  so  far  as  the  state  was  concerned  was  without 
official  title.  As  has  been  seen,  the  local  work  was 
absorbing,  she  was  ill  much  of  the  time,  both  her  mother 
and  her  aunt  Mag  died;  but  her  interest  never  flagged. 

Her  last  appeal  perhaps  was  to  Governor  Morrow 
for  support  of  the  new  plan  that  had  been  substituted 
for  that  of  establishing  state  sanatoria,  namely,  state 
aid  to  the  district  sanatoria.  Such  a  measure  was  passed 
in  1920.'  The  principle  had  been  embodied  in  a  provision 
in  the  act  of  191 8  for  state  aid  to  counties  or  districts 
establishing  local  health  bodies,  including  special  aid 
for  visiting-nurse  work.  However,  in  1920,  too,  a  sana- 
torium in  Louisville,  the  Hazlewood  Sanatorium — whose 
interests  seemed  to  her  sometimes  urged  to  the  detriment 
of  other  portions  of  the  state — was  declared  a  state  sana- 
torium, its  indebtedness  was  paid,  and  funds  were  appro- 
priated for  its  maintenance.''  The  principle  for  which 
she  had  so  struggled  was  recognized,  and  provision  of 
the  kind  she  had  urged  was  initiated.  For  other  por- 
tions of  the  state,  however,  she  was  more  hopeful  of  the 
other  measure  and  was  looking  to  the  development  of 
this  new  field  of  co-operative  effort,  and  she  wrote  a 
nimiber  of  editorials  urging  this  measure  with  others.^ 

In  a  letter  to  Governor  Morrow,  urging  his  support 
of  the  measure  which  he  finally  allowed  to  become  a  law 
without  his  signature,  is  given  utterance  to  one  of  the 
few  moods  of  discouragement  she  ever  admitted:    "The 

^Acts  of  IQ20,  chap.  154,  p.  663.  This  act  was  allowed  by  the  governor 
to  become  a  law  without  his  signature. 

2  Ibid.  3  See,  for  example,  the  Lexington  Herald,  January  31,  1920. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS       155 

tuberculosis  fight  in  Kentucky,  '^  she  wrote,  "  from  the  start 
to  finish  has  been  work,  persuade,  fight,  until  when 
you  get  anything  you  are  so  weary  you  can  hardly 
rejoice  in  it."  And  in  a  personal  interview  in  which  she 
pleaded  for  his  support,  when  he  urged  the  necessity  of 
public  economy  and  begged  her  to  be  patient,  she 
reminded  him  of  the  fifteen  years  of  public  agitation  and 
of  the  possibility  of  those  who  labored  so  not  living  to 
witness  the  fruits  of  their  labors.  She  was  too  gentle 
to  repeat  Mrs.  Kelley's  indictment:  "Why  do  governors 
want  people  needlessly  to  die  of  tuberculosis?"  But 
no  answer  has  yet  been  found  to  that  inquiry. 

In  her  work  for  tuberculosis  prevention  especially 
is  borne  in  on  the  observer  the  conviction  that  under 
our  present  method  of  selecting  our  officials,  such  lovers 
of  their  kind  as  she  are  fearfully  wasted.  How  governors 
one  after  another  wasted  her!  How  our  chosen  repre- 
sentatives, governors,  fiscal  courts,  what  not,  wasted  her! 
To  put  our  minds  to  the  problem  of  a  new  state  in  which 
by  some  device  we  may  be  led  by  those  who  go  ahead 
instead  of  by  those  who  hold  us  back,  is  surely  one  task 
for  any  who,  reading  the  record  of  her  work,  would 
apply  the  lesson. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES 

The  nobler  a  soul  is,  the  more  objects  of  compassion  it  hath. 
— Bacon. 

The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Associated  Charities  in 
their  resolutions  at  the  time  of  her  death  called  her  the 
"founder  of  the  Society."     They  say: 

Mrs.  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge  was  the  founder  of  the 
Associated  Charities  work  as  it  is  now  conducted.  In  iqoi  she 
organized  the  institution  existing  at  that  time  and  introduced  into 
Lexington  the  modern  idea  of  relief  and  social- welfare  work.  Her 
interest  in  the  organization  has  been  unfailing  from  its  beginning, 
on  its  present  basis.  She  has  served  continuously  on  the  Board  of 
Directors  and,  in  19 16,  in  recognition  of  her  services,  she  was 
elected  a  life  member. 

She  would,  however,  probably  disclaim  any  such  title; 
for  while  she  was  interested  in  the  association  from  the 
beginning  there  were  others  likewise  who  were  devoted 
co-workers  from  the  time  in  1900  when  the  organization 
grew  out  of  an  acute  local  need. 

The  incidents  connected  with  the  founding  of  the 
society  are  very  interesting,  especially  in  view  of  some  of 
the  ater  controversies  into  which  she  felt  compelled  to 
enter.  The  Lexington  Associated  Charities  is  unlike 
many  societies  that  go  by  that  or  a  s'milar  name,  for  the 
Lexington  society  owes  its  organization  directly  to  the 
solicitation  of  the  city  officials.  It  is  no  mere  private  vol- 
untary group  dictating  how  things  shall  be  done.  It  came 
into  being  as  a  response  by  generous  individuals  to  an 

156 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  157 

appeal — a  cry  of  despair — uttered  by  the  mayor  in  dis- 
tress.    The  sequence  of  events  in  that  early  period  is  as 
follows.     In  those  olden  times,  before  1899- 1900,  the  City 
Council  and  the  County  Board  were  in  the  habit  of  appro- 
priating special  charity  funds — even  perhaps  as  today — ex- 
cept that  there  was  no  organized  agency  for  the  dis- 
tribution of  those  funds.     Mayor  Duncan  took  ofhce 
January  i,  1900.     By  the  third  of  the  month  he  was  flying 
the  flag  of  distress.    The  applicants  for  public  charity 
were  swarming.    He  could  not  investigate.     The  truly 
needy  would  not  apply  under  the  conditions  prevailing. 
The  vociferous  received  what  they  did  not  need.     He 
called  for  help  on  the  "charitable  ladies.''     They  had 
helped  out  the  administration  in  times  of  distress  before; 
they  would,  he  knew,  come  again  to  the  public's  aid.'    At 
first  there  was  no  organization  ready  to  take  the  matter  in 
charge  and  to  investigate  the  cases  before  help  was  given.^ 
But  why  not  organize   a   new  committee  or  society? 
Mr.  Elijah  Allen,  then  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Alder- 
men, greatly  urged  a  new  organization,  but  the  mayor  was 
not  particular  whether  the  agency  be  old  or  new,  so  relief 
be  given  him.    There  could  hardly  be  found  a  prettier 
illustration  of  all  the   incidents  attendant  upon  indis- 
criminate  giving.     A    temporary   plan   was   formed  of 
referring  all  the  colored  applicants  to  Professor  Russell, 
a  leading  colored  educator,  and  of  requiring  the  white 
applicants  to  bring  recommendations  from  well-known 
citizens.^    This  relieved  the  office,  but  the  mayor  knew 
that  even  so  the  needy  were  not  cared  for;  and  finally, 
after  several  meetings,  an   organization   of  ladies   was 

»  See  the  Lexington  Herald,  January  3,  1900. 

'  Ibid.,  January  7,  1900.  '  Ibid.,  January  11,  1900. 


158        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

effected  February  14,  1900.  Two  days  before,  at  a  meet- 
ing at  which  the  mayor  had  said  that  if  a  plan  would  be 
worked  out  for  the  city,  he  thought  the  county  would 
come  into  the  scheme,  a  committee  had  been  appointed 
to  draw  up  a  plan  for  the  organization/  On  that  com- 
mittee were  members  of  the  older  group  of  women 
interested  in  the  humane  and  charitable  efforts  of  the 
city.  Some  of  them  were  well  informed  with  reference 
to  modern  charitable  methods.  One  of  them,  Mrs. 
Charles,  for  example,  wrote  to  the  papers  of  January  15 
an  admirably  clear  and  full  account  of  undertakings  else- 
where. She  pointed  out  the  need  for  adopting  better 
relief  methods  and  of  accompanying  them  with  construc- 
tive attacks  on  the  sources  of  poverty  and  urged  the  intro- 
duction of  domestic  science  and  manual  training  into  the 
public  schools. 

It  was  altogether  a  comprehensive  statement — and, 
indeed,  one  may  infer  that  the  desire  of  the  pubhc  offi- 
cials was,  with  the  help  of  the  charitable  ladies  whose  aid 
was  asked,  to  abandon  forever,  so  far  as  the  city  was  con- 
cerned, the  ancient  practices  common  in  connection  with 
public  outdoor  relief. 

The  group  who  undertook  the  work  for  the  mayor* 
decided  to  open  a  down-town  headquarters,  to  employ  a 
full-time  executive,  and  to  appoint  in  each  precinct  a  com- 
mittee of  two  ladies  to  investigate  the  applications  for  aid. 

^  The  members  of  the  committee  were  Miss  Rosa  Johnson,  Mrs.  Avery 
Winston,  and  Mrs.  John  Skain.  The  names  of  those  listed  as  attending  these 
meetings  include  Mrs.  T.  H.  Clay,  Mrs.  C.  H.  Brent,  Mrs.  C.  H.  Voorhies, 
Mrs.  Charles  Kemp,  Mrs.  F.  E.  Beauchamp,  Mrs.  S.  B.  Cronley,  Mrs.  S.  A. 
Charles,  Mrs.  Edmund  Bacon,  and  Mrs.  Henry  B.  Kinkead,  as  well  as  those 
appointed  on  the  committee. 

2  Mrs.  Winston,  Mrs.  Skain,  Miss  Rosa  Johnson,  Mrs.  Clay,  Health 
Officer  Malcomb  Brown,  and  Dean  John  M.  Lewis. 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  159 

Madge's  name  is  not  given  on  the  list  of  committees  in 
this  organization,  but  she  was  present  at  the  meetings 
and  soon  found  her  opportunities  for  service;  for  she  was 
famihar  with  the  principles  of  sound  case  work  and  had 
a  real  devotion  to  the  democratic  aspects  of  what  was 
known  as  the  "charity  organization"  movement,  which  she 
believed  was  grounded  in  respect  for  the  poor.  The  prin- 
ciples on  which  that  movement  was  based  included  knowl- 
edge of  the  nature  of  the  need,  application  of  resources 
to  the  special  need,  adequate  care  and  relief,  co-operation 
with  other  agencies  interested,  soliciting  support  so 
as  to  establish  right  relations  between  donor  and  recipi- 
ent, careful  recording  so  that  the  work  on  individual 
problems  could  be  continuous,  consistent,  and  construc- 
tive, and  so  that  the  community  could  benefit  from  the 
experience  of  individuals  in  the  discovery  of  its  plague 
spots. 

It  is  a  doctrine  that  is  indeed  fundamentally  demo- 
cratic and  respectful  to  the  needy.  A  person  in  distress 
is  regarded  as  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  learning 
the  true  nature  of  his  malady  and  applying  the  appropriate 
remedy.  No  two  cases  of  distress  are  just  alike,  and  no 
wholesale  remedy  will  suffice.  When  a  situation  has 
become  such  as  to  affect  many  alike,  it  should  be  dealt 
with  by  a  law,  removing  as  far  as  possible  the  cause  of 
distress.  On  these  points  she  was  clear;  and  to  the 
removal  of  certain  sources  of  misery,  poverty,  and  demor- 
alization— illiteracy,  child  labor,  mistreatment  of  children, 
tuberculosis — she  devoted  the  passionate  efforts  that  have 
been  described.  To  the  problems  of  individual  need  she 
gave  the  same  devoted  service,  and  as  she  would  effect 
no  compromise  with  agencies  or  influences  striking  down 


i6o        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

the  body  or  the  mind,  so  she  would  yield  truce  to  no  organi- 
zation, however  persuasive  its  general  approach  might  be, 
if  its  work  was  really  based  upon  a  scorn  and  disrespect  for 
the  poor,  such  as  would  result  in  the  use  of  wholesale 
methods  or  in  the  insidious  drugging  of  the  community 
into  behef  that  serving  a  family  in  need  is  a  slight  and 
generalized  problem.  Such  an  organization  as  pulled 
down  the  respect  of  a  poor  person  who  though  poor — 
perhaps  because  he  was  poor — was  worthy  of  gentlest 
handling  and  most  careful  treatment,  such  an  organization 
could  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  community  if  she 
could  prevent  it.  Souphouses,  bread  lines,  Thanksgiving 
and  Christmas  dinners  for  necessitous  persons,  were 
obnoxious  to  her,  and  on  this  ground. 

The  new  organization,  in  spite  of  the  support  given  by 
the  city  and  county,  for  the  county  "came  in, ^'  had  many 
difficulties.  Some  of  those  whose  aid  was  necessary  were 
themselves  not  converted  or  took  insufficient  time  to 
think  the  problem  through.  It  was  very  satisfying,  the 
"kind  lady's  handout''  on  which  the  tramp  learned  to  rely, 
the  "small-change"  charity  that  left  more  than  a  small 
coin's  worth  of  glow!  There  are  beggars  plying  their 
trade  on  the  streets  of  Lexington  today,  twenty-one  years 
after  the  organization  was  effected.  They  show  clearly 
to  all  the  world  that,  in  spite  of  all,  Lexington  has  not  yet 
"seen  through"  the  problem. 

Madge  was  eager  to  go  ahead  with  the  work  as  rapidly 
as  was  possible.  After  all  these  years,  Mrs.  Charles 
writes : 

I  had  the  privilege  of  being  associated  in  the  work  of  the 
Associated  Charities  with  Mrs.  Breckinridge  in  Lexington,  and 
I  so  well  remember  meeting  her  in  the  street  at  the  time  when  a 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  i6i 

few  of  us  were  trying  so  hard  to  establish  an  organization  for  the 
betterment  of  the  poor  of  the  city,  and  of  telling  her  what  we 
were  trying  to  do.  Her  sympathy  and  interest  were  immediately 
aroused,  and  she  at  once  entered  into  the  work  with  the  enthusi- 
asm characteristic  of  everything  she  did.  The  success  of  the 
work  was  largely  due  to  her  efforts  and  since  I  have  left  Lexington 
I  have  heard  the  organization  has  become  a  great  power  for  the 
good  in  the  community. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  of  the  early  years,  by  1907 
the  society  was  in  a  position  where  incorporation  seemed 
advisable  and  where  the  publication  of  an  annual  report 
was  justified.' 

The  purposes  of  the  newly  incorporated  society  were 
stated  to  be : 

To  encourage  thrift,  self-dependence  and  industry  through 
friendly  intercourse,  advice  and  sympathy,  and  to  aid  the  poor  to 
help  themselves  rather  than  to  aid  them  by  alms. 

To  secure  the  concurrent  and  harmonious  action  of  the  different 
charitable  organizations  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  in  order  to  raise 
the  needy  above  the  need  of  relief,  prevent  begging  and  imposition, 
and  diminish  pauperism. 

To  arouse  interest  in  social  problems  and  put  within  the  reach 
of  the  public  the  results  of  careful  investigation. 

To  cause  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  case  of  every  applicant 
for  relief  and  to  place  the  results  of  such  investigations  at  the 
disposal  of  charitable  societies  and  agencies,  and  private  persons 
of  benevolence. 

To  obtain  employment  for  suitable  assistance  for  every  deserv- 
ing applicant  from  public  authorities,  charitable  agencies  or  benevo- 
lent individuals,  and  to  make  all  relief  either  of  alms  or  charitable 
work  conditional  upon  good  conduct  and  progress. 

» The  "Articles  of  Incorporation"  can  be  found  in  the  Lexington  Herald 
for  February  1 1 ,  1907.  The  others  named  were  G.  V.  Morris,  Thomas  Johnson, 
Anna  Gratz  Clay,  and  C.  H.  H.  Branch.  Her  name  appears  as  a  member  of 
the  board  from  that  time  on. 


i62        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

In  every  department  of  its  work  this  corporation  shall  be  com- 
pletely severed  from  all  questions  of  religious  belief,  politics  and 
nationality.^ 

The  mayor,  the  judge  of  the  City  and  PoHce  Court,  the 
chief  of  police,  the  members  of  the  City  Council  and  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen,  the  city  physician,  the  health  officer, 
the  superintendent  of  schools,  the  county  judge,  the  chief 
presiding  officer  of  every  charitable  association,  and  the 
pastors  of  all  churches  of  the  city  were  ex  officio  members 
of  the  organization. 

The  first  published  Report  (1906-7)  showed  a  number- 
of  interesting  developments.  The  society  had  already 
established  a  visiting-nursing  service,  on  a  small  scale — 
they  had  been  able  to  afford  only  two  months  of  this 
service,  but  it  was  a  beginning — they  had  attacked  through 
the  wood  yard  the  problem  of  the  transient,  they  had 
established  a  penny  savings  fund,  and  they  had  developed 
sound  case  work,  including  friendly  visiting.  It  will  be 
recalled  that  a  juvenile  court  law  had  been  enacted  in 
1906,  and  the  secretary  of  the  society  was  likewise  proba- 
tion ofi&cer  under  that  law. 

Of  the  income — $2,383.50^  for  the  six  months  reported 
on — the  city  had  given  $1,000  and  the  county  $500.  The 
society  was  indeed  an  arm  of  the  public  service.  In  the 
eighth  Report,  tjie  first  published  report  covering  a  full 
year,  the  city  is  shown  to  have  contributed  $2,049.99,  the 
county  $1,100  for  relief  and  $338.48  for  juvenile  court 
work,  out  of  a  total  income  of  $3,945.30,  leaving  less  than 

'  "Articles  of  .Incorporation,"  sec.  iii. 

'  In  this  cakulation  a  balance  of  $415.59  on  hand  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year  is  admitted. 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  163 

$500  obtained  from  gifts.  The  office  of  the  society  had 
been  combined  with  a  wayfarers'  rest,  and  transient 
persons  in  need  were  fed  and  lodged  and  cared  for  as 
best  it  could  be  done.  The  co-operation  with  the  Juvenile 
Court  continued,  and  the  executives  of  the  society  re- 
mained the  officers  of  the  probation  staff. 

During  the  year  1907-8  the  society  took  up  the 
sources  of  the  various  forms  of  distress  represented  by 
the  applicants  for  help.  Tuberculosis,  housmg,  child 
labor,  and  the  chattel-loan  agencies  were  among  the 
subjects  studied.  A  correspondence  into  which  she 
entered  with  the  proprietor  of  a  chattel-mortgage  com- 
pany illustrates  a  special  type  of  service  she  was  con- 
stantly rendering  to  the  society  in  making  clear  to  the 
community  how  its  principles  worked  out. 

She  knew  the  tasks  by  which  the  society  was  specially 
strained  and  the  difficulties  it,  at  the  moment,  must 
encounter.  Her  swift  attack  was  like  that  of  the  ancient 
light-armored  troop  we  read  of  in  our  early  school  days. 
Her  quiver  was  always  full;  her  aim  was  sure.  The  heart 
of  the  insincere  pretense  was  struck. 

The  chattel  loan,  for  example,  has  always  been  a  prob- 
lem to  the  charitable  organization.  Until  there  is  provi- 
sion for  meeting  the  need  experienced  from  time  to  time 
by  the  most  careful  and  thrifty  members  of  the  low-income 
groups  for  obtaining  credit  in  emergency,  the  loan  shark 
will  persist.  So  every  society  must  in  its  time  point  out 
the  lack  and  suggest  a  remedy.  In  1909  the  Lexington 
Associated  Charities,  spurred  by  a  particularly  distressing 
case  that  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  society,  published 
the  facts  in  several  of  their  cases.     The  attack  by  the 


i64        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Charities  was  met  by  a  response  on  the  part  of  the 
proprietor  of  a  chattel-mortgage  company,  who  described 
thej^methods  of  his  firm  and  said  among  other  things, 
^' We  claim  to  be  benefactors  to  poor  people. " 

There  was  the  element  of  truth  in  the  statement  that 
the  poor  needed  devices  for  credit  that  were  not  avail- 
able. But  as  he  furnished  credit,  so  he  took  usury, 
and  sad  indeed  was  the  fate  of  his  claim.  The  whole 
communication  is  reproduced,  for  while  the  claim  to  grati- 
tude of  the  usurer  could  not  be  allowed,  the  fundamental 
evil  is  pointed  out,  namely,  that  the  appropriate  credit 
institutions  have  not  been  developed.  The  proprietor  of 
the  chattel-loan  firm  says: 

We  have  been  in  business  in  Lexington  nine  years  now.  We 
have  always  paid  our  license  promptly  amounting  to  $250,  City, 
County  and  State  license,  and  if  we  did  not  do  a  legitimate  business 
we  do  not  think  we  would  be  allowed  a  license.  There  is  no  branch 
establishment  doing  business  under  our  name,  or  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  our  firm.  While  we  chattel  loan  people  have  been 
referred  to  as  ''loan  sharks, "  we  are  not  the  "sharks"  that  we  have 
been  painted  by  the  newspapers.  There  are  two  sides  to  the  ques- 
tion relative  to  the  conduct  of  the  chattel  loan  business.  We  claim 
to  be  benefactors  to  poor  people.  Banks  loan  money  and  so  do  we, 
but  our  loans  are  made  to  the  poor,  who  are  unable  to  secure  loans 
from  the  banks.  Their  loans  are  secured  while  we  take  risks  on 
practically  every  dollar  we  loan.  How  many  of  the  people  who 
come  to  us  for  small  loans,  do  you  think,  would  be  able  to  borrow 
money  from  the  banks  ?  Not  one  in  a  hundred.  Compared  with 
the  amounts  loaned  and  the  risks  taken,  the  chattel  loan  people  are 
as  helpful  in  a  business  way  as  the  banks,  yet  we  are  condemned 
and  denominated  "loan  sharks. "  We  believe  we  are  entitled  to  a 
hearing  and  when  our  methods  are  investigated  it  will  be  found 
that  our  business  is  not  only  legitimate,  but  helpful  to  those  needing 
our  service.^     - 

»  See  the  Leader,  Sunday,  January  24,  1909. 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  165 

And  she  replies: 

In  The  Leader  of  Sunday  appeared  an  article  under  the  heading 

"Chattel  Loan  Firms,"  in  which  Mr. ,  of  The  Lexington 

Chattel  Loan  Company,  undertakes  to  correct  the  erroneous 
impression  concerning  the  chattel  loan  business  in  which  he  is 
engaged,  and  against  which  a  crusade  has  been  started  by  the 
Associated  Charities. 

*' We  claim,"  says  Mr. ,  "to  be  benefactors  to  the  poor 

people." 

As  it  happens,  I  do  not  have  to  go  far  from  home  for  a  proof 

of  the  benefactions  of  Mr. 's  firm.    The  sister  of  my  cook 

no  later  than  December  borrowed  from  his  firm,  according  to  her 
statement,  the  sum  of  $8.00,  for  which  she  is  to  pay  back  a  dollar 
each  week  until  she  has  paid  twelve;  in  other  words,  for  the 
benefaction  she  is  p&.ying  for  the  loan  of  $8.00  for  an  average  time 
of  one  month  the  modest  rate  of  600  per  cent  a  year.  A  little  more 
than  a  year  ago  I  settled — through  a  lawyer — with  this  same  firm. 

The  Lexington  Chattel  Loan  Company,  of  which  Mr.  S was 

at  that  time  the  head,  for  a  similar  loan  made  to  my  cook  some 
time  before  my  acquaintance  with  her  began.  She  had  gotten 
eight  dollars,  and  was  to  pay  back  twelve.  She  had  succeeded  in 
paying  back  five  in  weekly  installments.  Being  unable  to  pay 
more  the  matter  was  brought  up  in  the  Court  of  one  of  our  justices 
and  the  resulting  bill  was  for  $1.60  for  Justice's  cost  and  50  cents 
for  constable's  cost.  The  court  costs  of  $2 .  10  were  paid  and  $3 .  00 
was  tendered  The  Chattel  Loan  Company  by  her  lawyer.  The 
Chattel  Loan  Company,  for  some  reason  better  known  to  them- 
selves than  to  us,  accepted  the  $3.00  and  gave  a  receipt  in  full  for 
her  debt.  That  is  with  the  aid  of  a  lawyer — who  gave  his  services, 
but  has  not  yet  published  himself  as  a  philanthropist — this  woman 
obtained  a  loan  of  $8.00  for  a  few  months  for  $10.10. 

Without  this  lawyer's  aid  she  would  have  had  to  pay  $14.10 
for  the  $8.00 — unless  there  had  been  other  court  processes,  each 
with  their  attendant  costs,  which  there  probably  would  have  been 
as  the  woman  had  by  that  time  become  absolutely  unable  to  pay. 
This  was  the  case  of  a  woman  who  had  been  obliged  to  leave  her 
husband  because  he  drank  and  gambled  away  her  wages  as  well  as 


i66        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

his.  She  was  and  is  trying  to  support  herself  and  three  Uttle 
children  and,  with  the  aid  of  the  sister,  who  negotiated  the  latest 
loan  from  The  Lexington  Chattel  Loan  Company,  to  support  an 
aged  father. 

The  sister  also  had  a  child  to  support  without  the  aid  of  the 
child's  father.  I  questioned  my  cook  as  to  how,  knowing  the  price 
she  was  paying  for  the  money,  she  could  have  wanted  these  loans. 

In  times  of  crisis,  it  seems,  at  the  birth  of  the  youngest  baby, 
an  attack  of  pneumonia  of  the  second  child,  etc.,  she  had  resorted 

to  the  aid  of  the  "philanthropists"  of  which  Mr. is  the  type. 

By  the  conditions  which  she  accep'ted  because  it  was  the  only  means 
which  she  knew  to  get  the  money  which  she  had  to  have  short  of 
stealing,  she  was  to  pay  back  between  April  first  and  July  seventh, 
$12.00,  for  a  loan  of  $8.00. 

Mr. is  right.     He  is  operating  under  a  state,  city  and 

county  license.  There  are  no  laws  in  Kentucky  at  present  to  reach 
him  and  his  fellow  philanthropists — except  the  law'  of  usury.  For 
the  violation  of  this  law,  I  understand,  he  can  not  be  prosecuted. 
The  only  remedy  lies  with  the  people  who  are  too  helpless  and 
ignorant  to  use  it.  If  every  borrower  from  the  firm  was  wise  and 
cunning  enough  to  tender  The  Lexington  Chattel  Loan  Company 
the  principal  borrowed,  plus  the  highest  legal  rate  of  interest,  and 
could  not  be  intimidated  by  the  firm  and  court  processes  to  recede 

from  that  position,  I  believe  that  Mr.  et  at.,  would  very 

quickly  decide  to  try  some  other  form  of  philanthropy.  But,  of 
course,  this  is  not  to  be  hoped  for.  Until  another  remedy  is  found 
these  philanthropists  will  continue  to  do  business,  and  the  penalties 
exacted  from  the  honest  and  timid  borrowers  will  more  than  make 
up  for  the  losses  from  others,  making  the  balance  on  the  right  side 
of  the  books — which,  of  course,  is  the  important  thing  in  such 
philanthropic  schemes.^ 

The  subject  of  burials  and  their  cost  was  another  of  the 
problems  in  which  she  was  greatly  interested.  She  re- 
spected the  longing  experienced  by  every  grieving  heart 
to  pay  to  the  body  of  the  dead  the  last  and  utmost  respect. 

*  Lexington  Herald,  January  27,  1909. 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  167 

She  knew  that  the  poor  and  well-to-do  were  alike  in  that 
ultimate  desire,  and  she  regretted  the  example  of  display 
set  by  the  well-to-do  and  resented  the  advantage  taken 
of  the  poor  by  the  unscrupulous  undertaker;  and  so  she 
calculated  and  estimated  and  tried  to  plan  a  way  by  which 
the  loving  instincts  might  be  gratified  without  such  dis- 
astrous effects  in  the  family  resources. 

The  question  of  sound  and  thorough  records  is  brought 
up ;  and,  although  she  is  out  of  tlie  city  and  deeply  engaged 
in  effort  along  other  lines,  she  writes  back  at  once  a  mas- 
terly statement  covering  the  subject,  and  showing  that 
whether  the  society  spends  private,  or  much  more  clearly 
if  it  spends  pubHc,  funds,  the  results  of  constructive  work 
and  of  effective  use  of  experience  can  be  gained  only 
through  the  keeping  of  records  and  the  careful  scrutiny 
of  recorded  work.  She  writes  from  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  on  March  22,  1915: 

Though  I  am  a  little  late  in  the  day  making  connection  with 
Dr.  J.  W.  Porter's  article  of  March  16  on  the  question  of  charity  and 
relief  work,  I  believe  I  rather  owe  it  to  my  side  of  the  discussion  to 
add  a  few  more  "opinions"  on  the  subject.     Dr.  Porter  says: 

**  Concerning  the  claim  that  *  continuous  records  shall  be  kept 
of  those  applying  for  rehef,'  the  writer  and  your  correspondent  are 
the  poles  apart.  In  many  cases  such  a  record  should  be  kept, 
while  in  others  help  should  be  promptly  given  and  as  promptly 
forgotten.  The  writer  has  personal  knowledge  of  several  instances 
in  our  city  where  parties  have  been  helped  who  would  be  deeply 
humiUated  to  know  that  their  names  would  appear  on  a  charity  roll. 
In  not  a  few  instances  help  has  been  given  to  those  who  have  never 
applied  to  any  charity  organization." 

I  fully  agree  with  Dr.  Porter  that  there  are  many  times  when 
the  right  hand  should  not  know  what  the  left  hand  doeth.  All 
persons  witli  any  spark  of  human  brotherhood  do  charity  of  this 
kind;  not  only  the  rich  and  the  well-to-do,  but  the  poor,  even  the 


l68        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

very  poor,  who  are  closer  to  the  needs  of  their  brothers,  do  it  con- 
tinually. It  is  done  between  members  of  the  same  family,  of  the 
same  church  congregation,  of  the  same  fraternal  order,  and  happily, 
because  of  bonds  of  many  kinds  between  human  beings,  within 
many  other  groups  of  people. 

A  central  relief  agency  through  which  public  funds  are  dis- 
pensed can  never,  fortunately,  do  away  with  such  expressions  of 
kind-heartedness  and  fellow  feeling.  But  I  can  not  be  too  emphatic 
in  maintaining,  and  I  believe  I  am  right,  that  an  agency  dispensing 
outdoor  relief  and  maintained  wholly  or  in  part  from  public  funds, 
should  for  many  reasons,  some  of  them  quite  obvious,  keep  exact 
records  of  the  persons  asking  aid,  the  reasons  found  on  investigation 
why  help  should  be  given  or  withheld,  and  the  amount  of  aid  given 
in  each  case.  The  financial  records  of  such  a  society  should  be 
open  at  any  time  to  the  inspection  of  the  authorities  and  to  repu- 
table tax-paying  citizens.  There  is  practically  no  danger  of  any 
use  of  this  investigating  privilege  from  any  wrong  motive. 

It  is  largely  because  the  City  Missionary  Society  believes  that 
its  own  activities  should  be  private,  though  in  order  to  act  intelli- 
gently it  must  often  know  what  the  Associated  Charities  has  done 
or  is  going  to  do  in  a  given  case,  that  proper  co-operation  between 
the  two  has  often  proven  impossible. 

Dr.  Porter  states  that  none  of  the  city  appropriation  goes  to 
the  salary  of  any  one  connected  with  the  organization,  but  all 
directly  to  charity.  Similarly,  the  Associated  Charities  might 
maintain  that  none  of  the  public  money  received  by  it  from  city 
and  county  goes  into  salaries  or  other  service,  since  more  than  the 
total  amount  of  administrative  expense  is  raised  from  private 
subscriptions.  But,  after  all,  that  is  a  quibble;  it  is  a  matter  of 
individual  "opinion"  and  construction  whether  one  necessary  part 
of  the  work  is  paid  for  from  one  consignment  of  money  put  into  a 
common  treasury  or  from  another. 

I  believe  that  the  City  Missionary  Society  has,  as  has  any 
individual  church  society,  the  right  to  keep  its  relief  work  quite 
private  and  unrevealed,  even  to  deny  itself  and  other  social  workers 
the  advantages  of  a  ''confidential  exchange. "  But  I  do  not  believe 
that  a  society  maintained  on  those  principles,  and  which,  as  its 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  169 

name  indicates,  desires  to  combine  with  its  relief  work  a  certain 
amount  of  religious  teaching  representing  the  views  of  the  groups 
of  persons  from  different  Protestant  churches  composing  it,  should 
ask  or  receive  tax  money.  Tax  money  comes  not  only  from 
Protestants  but  from  Jews  and  Catholics  and  agnostics.  The 
principle  of  separation  of  church  and  state  is  fairly  well  accepted 
in  this  country.  And  taxpayers  of- all  views  have  a  right  to  know 
how  their  money  is  being  spent,  whether  for  streets  or  for  parks  or 
for  charity.  This  is  said  without  animus — though  that  will  prob- 
ably be  doubted.  I  believe  that  any  church  or  group  of  churches 
or  of  individuals  has  an  inalienable  right  to  maintain  a  relief 
society  combining  religious  work  with  relief  and  keeping  its  records 
private,  but  I  do  not  think  it  is  particularly  self-respecting  in  such 

a  society  to  ask  contributions  from  public   funds 

Al  one  time  each  member  of  the  fiscal  court  and  the  County 
Judge  did  relief  work.  A  considerable  amount  of  relief  work  is, 
I  believe,  still  done  by  the  county  authorities.  I  do  not  think  this 
is  best,  any  more  than  I  think  it  is  best  for  each  city  commis- 
sioner also  to  do  separate  charity  work.  And  I  do  not  think 
this  view  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  highest  respect  for 
every  individual  composing  the  city  commission  and  fiscal  court, 
any  more  than  it  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  highest  respect 
for  private  charitable  societies  to  say  that  I  think  there  should  not 
be  two  nor  three  nor  half  a  dozen  societies  dispensing  outdoor 
relief  from  public  funds,  but  only  one  such  agency.  Or  even  that 
I  think  it  would  be  infinitely  better  for  the  poor  if  there  could  be 
one  central  agency  through  which,  or  in  close  and  frank  co-operation 
with  which,  all  other  relief  societies  worked. 

Nor  is  it  inconsistent  with  the  highest  respect  for  public 
oflBcials  and  private  societies  to  say  that  I  believe  every  taxpayer 
has  the  same  right  to  demand  to  know  exactly  how  tax  money  is  spent 
in  relief  work,  whether  by  city  or  county  authorities  or  by  societies 
handling  such  funds,  that  he  has  to  know  how  money  is  spent  on  the 
parks  or  on  the  streets,  or  the  city  hall  or  the  county  roads.^ 

To  what  might  be  called  the  standard  problems  of 
the  society — the  transient,  the  intermittent  husband,  the 

*  Lexington  Herald,  March  25,  19 15. 


170        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

widow  with  several  children — further  reference  need  not 
be  made.  If  there  was  opportunity  for  setting  forth  the 
fundamental  interest,  of  increasing  the  intelligence  of  the 
community,  of  expressing  the  joy  of  really  setting  right  one 
family  situation,  she  leaped  to  do  it.  But  the  list  is  as 
long  as  the  list  of  the  difficulties  of  the  society  and  as  the 
list  of  confusions  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  not  yet 
tried  to  render  the  only  service  Edward  Denison  said  half 
a  century  ago  could  be  rendered  for  the  poor,  namely, 
"lend  your  brains."  "No  one  may  deliver  his  brother, 
he  can  but  throw  him  a  plank."  She  handed  out  one 
plank  after  another  on  which  the  poor  might  pass  over 
the  distress,  in  which  the  well-to-do  might  embody  his 
ultimate  good  will. 

During  the  year  1909-10  the  tuberculosis  society 
established  offices  in  the  building  with  the  Charities; 
later  the  city  physician  joined  the  group;  a  distinguished 
specialist  in  the  nose,  throat,  ear,  and  eye  established  a 
chnic  in  the  building ;  and  so  the  co-operative  relationships 
were  multiplied.  The  problem  of  the  transient  and  of 
the  beggar  were  always  heavy  on  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  society,  but  the  work  went  on. 

It  did  not  go  on  easily,  however.  Each  year  the 
appropriations  had  to  be  obtained.  The  city  and  county 
officials  do  not  remain  the  same,  the  private  funds  must 
be  solicited,  the  lessons  of  1900  may  be  and  are  forgotten 
and  must  be  learned  all  over  again.  Then,  too,  there  is 
the  recurring  problem  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving.  In 
1909,  for  example,  the  Salvation  Army  came  in  with  its 
proffer  of  a  souphouse — a  method  rejected  before  1900. 
She  wrote  swiftly  and  immediately,  "Why,  because  a 
person  is  poor,  must  he  be  made  a  spectacle  of?" 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  171 

I  have  noticed  that  the  Salvation  Army  proposes  to  open  a 
free  soup  kitchen  in  Lexington,  and  I  must  register  a  protest. 
Lexington  has  passed  through  the  free  soup  kitchen  era,  and  has 
gotten  to  a  wiser  sort  of  charity.  Many  of  the  local  charitable 
persons,  who  in  former  days  helped  to  run  the  occasional  free  soup 
kitchen,  will,  I  know,  be  glad  to  second  this  motion. 

While  I  have  heard  Captain  Ennis  spoken  of  in  the  highest 
terms  for  his  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  his  earnestness,  I  am 
obliged  to  object  to  this  method  of  relief,  which  unfortunately,  to 
my  mind,  is  all  too  common  in  Salvation  Army  circles. 

There  is  no  reason  why,  because  a  person  is  poor,  he  should  be 
made  a  spectacle  of.  If  a  worthy  family  is  in  need  of  food,  it  should 
be  sent  to  the  house;  the  family  should  not  be  subjected  to  display- 
ing their  poverty  in  public.  Nor  does  one  bowl  of  hot  soup,  or  one 
meal,  do  much  to  help  a  family  that  is  without  food  or  groceries  or 
work  in  a  cold  spell  like  the  present  one.  One  hot  meal  does  the 
giver  more  good  as  a  rule  than  it  does  the  recipient;  he  has  a  glow 
of  satisfaction  at  his  own  generosity  that  lasts  for  days,  sometimes 
for  weeks  or  months;  but  the  hungry  man  or  woman  is  apt  to  be 
hungry  again  inside  of  twenty-four  hours. 

The  free  soup  kitchen  relieves  distress  in  so  temporary  a  way 
that  it  really  should  not  be  classed  as  relief,  but  the  effect  of  de- 
stroying self-respect  in  the  applicant,  who  thus  makes  a  public 
avowal  of  pauperism,  is  lasting.  Moreover,  the  free  soup  kitchen, 
the  public  dispensary  of  hot  food  is  a,  soft  snap  for  the  impostor 
and  for  the  fraud,  and  the  no-accounts  who  find  pauperism  easier 
and  pleasanter  than  working  will  come  in  like  flies  to  the  honey 
pot.  Wind  of  it  will  soon  get  around.  The  hobo  is  not  an  igno- 
ramus; he  reads  the  newspapers. 

Two  men  who  lodged  at  the  Associated  Charities  Friday  night 
were  quick  to  notice  the  item  in  Saturday  morning's  paper  about 
the  proposed  free  soup  kitchen. " 

The  great  advantage  in  the  free  soup  kitchen,  as  in  the  public 
Christmas  dinners,  and  other  spectacular  relief  measures  adopted 
by  the  Salvation  Army  in  the  cities,  is  that  it  appeals  to  the  emo- 
tions of  the  comfortable  rich  and  loosens  the  purse  strings.  To 
the  poor,  in  my  opinion,  it  has  only  disadvantages.     There  are 


172        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

emergencies  in  which  the  public  doUng  out  of  hot  food  is  excusable 
and  sometimes  necessary.  After  some  great  public  calamity — 
earthquake,  flood,  or  fire,  for  instance.  But  Lexington  is  not  facing 
such  a  situation  at  present. 

The  Associated  Charities  is  able  to  deal  with  the  situation,  and 
will  be,  even  if  the  thermometer  stays  in  the  zero  neighborhood  for 
some  days,  provided  the  community  is  willing  to  pay  the  bills  for 
coal  and  groceries,  and  judging  from  yesterday's  donations  it  is 
willing.  About  75  persons  were  taken  care  of  at  the  ofiice  yester- 
day, by  the  ofl&ce  force,  with  some  assistance  from  members  of  the 
Board.  Nearly  all  of  the  persons  applying  for  assistance  or  for 
whom  application  was  made  were  well  known  to  the  agents,  and  a 
very  small  amount  of  investigation  was  necessary,  as  compared  to 
what  had  to  be  done  five  or  six  years  back,  when  the  office  was  first 
opened. 

If  the  community  will  continue  to  support  the  Associated 
Charities,  it  may  feel  confident  that  year  by  year  it  grows  better 
fitted  to  cope  with  the  local  situation,  and  that  there  is,  therefore, 
less  need  of  violent  and  spectacular  measures.^ 

Again,  early  in  191 4,  the  demoralizing  effect  of  the 
indiscriminate  reHef-giving  of  the  Army,  both  in  giving  to 
those  whose  need  is  different  in  character  and  in  diverting 
from  those  whose  need  might  not  be  met  because  it  is 
not  made  known,  was  pointed  out  in  another  vigorous 
protest: 

An  item  appeared  in  Wednesday  evening's  Leader,  brought  to 
the  paper,  it  was  stated,  by  Adjutant  Harris,  of  the  Salvation  Army. 
The  item  told  of  two  little  children  who  had  come  to  the  Salvation 
Army  headquarters  in  a  distressing  condition,  applying  for  assist- 
ance. 

It  gave  the  father's  name  and  his  address,  stated  that  there  were 
seven  children  in  the  family,  "six  under  twelve,  five  of  whom  are 
trying  to  attend  Lincoln  School,  but  who  are  greatly  handicapped 
for  want  of  clothing  and  shoes." 

^  Lexington  Herald,  January  31,  1909. 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  173 

Does  the  public  of  Lexington  approve  that  method  of  soliciting 
aid  ?  If  the  family  is  a  worthy  one,  should  it  be  humiliated  by 
publishing  the  name,  address  and  the  circumstances  of  poverty  in 
detail  ?  Does  the  contribution  of  a  little  temporary  help  compen- 
sate to  that  family  for  the  loss  of  self-respect  and  the  consignment 
to  the  ranks  of  pauperism  and  possibly  of  professional  mendicancy 
that  the  publication  leads  up  to  ? 

The  method  of  the  Salvation  Army  is  undoubtedly  an  excellent 
one  for  raising  money.  It  is,  the  writer  thinks,  a  vicious  one  when 
it  comes  to  the  effect  on  the  persons  for  whom  help  is  solicited. 

But  as  it  happens  the  facts  in  the  present  case  illustrate  more 
than  one  of  the  faults  of  an  organization  that  depends  for  existence 
on  appeals  to  the  sentimentality  of  the  community. 

The  two  children  represented  not  one  family,  but  two,  the 
mother  of  one  little  girl,  "the  little  Martha"  of  the  story,  having 
heard,  as  she  puts  it,  ''that  they  were  givin'  out  things  up  at  the 
Salvation  Army,"  proposed  that  these  two  children  ''go  up  and 
get  what  they  could."  Naturally  they  did  not  wear  their  best 
clothes.  The  other  child,  whose  father's  name  the  newspaper 
article  almost  gave — there  was  the  mistake  of  a  letter,  fortunately — 
comes  of  a  family  that  needs  slight  assistance  from  time  to  time 
only,  most  of  the  members  of  which  are  self-respecting.  The  boys 
have  sometimes  needed  admonition  from  the  Juvenile  Court  and 
truant  ofl5cer.  In  this  family  there  are  two  grown  sons  and  an 
able-bodied  father,  two  daughters  old  enough  to  work  and  at  pres- 
ent at  work  in  the  tobacco  factory,  two  small  children,  a  girl  about 
8  years  old  and  a  boy  about  12,  who  do  go  to  Lincoln  School. 

The  other  family,  the  mother  of  which  had  the  brilliant  and 
very  natural  idea  of  availing  herself  of  the  overflowing  charity  of 
the  Salvation  Army,  has  a  long  and  interesting  history,  which  may 
be  found  in  the  records  of  the  Juvenile  Court. 

The  father  and  mother  are  able-bodied.  There  is  a  son  1 7  years 
old  who  works  in  the  tobacco  factory.  There  are  six  younger 
children,  three  of  school  age,  one  of  kindergarten  age  and  a  baby. 
At  one  time  the  family  was  broken  up  by  the  Juvenile  Court  and 
the  children  placed  temporarily  in  the  Children's  Home,  because 
of  the  dirt,  neglect,  and  drunkenness  of  the  parents.     The  father 


174 


MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 


has  more  than  once  been  put  in  jail;  about  a  year  ago  the  Juvenile 
Court  exercised  its  moral  suasion  to  make  him  marry  the  mother; 
an  attempt  was  made  to  rehabilitate  the  family  and  the  father  was 
compelled  to  move  into  a  more  decent  house. 

For  three  or  four  years  it  has  taken  constant  surveillance  to 
prevent  the  children  from  begging  on  the  streets  and  from  door  to 
door.  The  truant  officer  states  that  for  three  or  four  weeks  before 
Christmas  it  took  as  much  effort  to  keep  the  three  children  of  school 
age  in  school  as  a  half  dozen  families  of  children  should  require, 
as  the  mother  had  then  decided  to  send  the  children  out  soliciting 
Christmas  dinner,  Christmas  presents,  etc.,  while  the  heart  of  the 
householder  was  soft.  If  the  community  desires  to  make  profes- 
sional paupers  of  these  five  children  whom  it  will  have  to  support 
through  the  rest  of  their  natural  lives,  it  can  do  it  by  adopting 
Salvation  Army  methods  of  relief. 

There  is  much  real  poverty  in  this  community,  there  is  much 
real  sickness  and  sorrow  and  distress.  It  is  too  bad  to  have  the 
charity  of  the  community  frittered  away  in  a  few  tin  horns,  a  few 
Christmas  packages,  a  little  spasmodic  giving  that  is  valuable 
chiefly  for  the  satisfaction  the  giver  obtains.  We  have  established 
the  incorporated  agencies  of  relief  in  this  city.  Their  Board  of 
Directors  are  made  up  of  local  people  well  known  to  the  community 
and  responsible  to  it.  Their  books  are  open  to  the  pubHc,  their 
financial  management  may  at  any  time  be  investigated,  the  records 
of  their  work  may  be  examined  by  any  citizen  who  desires  to  do  so. 
And  yet  these  agencies  are  poorly  supported  by  the  public. 

The  Associated  Charities  has  for  a  month  or  two  advertised 
the  fact  that  it  needed  money  to  furnish  shoes  for  children,  and  yet 
it  has  had  to  run  into  debt  to  furnish  them'  in  a  portion  of  the  most 
insistent  cases. 

It  was  somewhat  heartbreaking  to  read  not  only  of  the  Christ- 
mas dinners  to  thousands  of  ''poor"  in  New  York  City,  but  of  the 
many  things  done  for  the  "  poor  "  in  Lexington  at  Christmas.  Not 
that  the  well-springs  of  human  kindness  should  close  at  Christmas, 
but  that  they  should  flow  regularly,  consistently,  thoughtfully 
all  the  year  through  agencies  that  will  use  them  to  the  best 
advantages. 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  175 

And  furthermore  that  it  is  a  confession  of  failure  that  there 
should  be  so  many  *'poor"  in  Lexington,  so  many  "mean  streets," 
so  many  unsanitary  dwelling  houses,  so  many  sick  of  preventable 
diseases.  Our  duty  is  not  fulfilled  by  giving  a  tin  horn,  or  a 
Christmas  dinner;  our  task  is  to  abolish  poverty.  It  is  being  done 
in  newer  and  more  civilized  countries.  Right  here  in. Lexington 
we  know  many  of  the  next  steps  if  only  we  would  take  them. 

The  public  has  a  general  notion  that  organized  charity  means 
large  money  for  salaries  and  administration  and  little  money  for 
the  poor.  And  that  in  the  case  of  the  Salvation  Army  it  all  goes  to 
the  poor.  Organized  charity  does  try  to  pay  a  living  wage  to  those 
who  give  their  whole  time  to  its  service.  And  the  public  should 
remember  that  also  the  "army"  of  the  Salvation  Army  must  be 
supported  before  any  of  the  dimes  given  up  .by  the  comfortable 
citizen  under  the  hypnotism  of  the  tambourine  find  then*  way  to 
"the  poor." 

The  public  never  sees  the  books  of  the  Salvation  Army;  there 
is  no  accounting  to  those  who  give.  Also  it  sends  constantly  new  sets 
of  "officers"  into  each  community,  who  proceed  to  raise  money  to 
give  dinners  or  baskets  to  500  "poor,^'  or  5,000  "poor, "  or  whatever 
number  is  decided  on  as  appropriate,  without  seeking  to  gain 
information  of  those  who  have  long  studied  the  situation,  and  who 
stay  by  it  year  by  year. 

Whatever  may  be  its  accomplishment  in  "saving  souls,"  of 
which  an  accurate  accounting  is  difficult,  as  a  relief  agency  it  is 
disorganizing  and  ineffective.  This  is  the  testimony  from  careful 
investigators  in  many  communities.* 

The  public  officials  that  took  the  trouble  or  had  the 
occasion  really  to  learn  the  doctrine  did  not  forget. 

When  I  was  City  Clerk,  I,  too,  felt  that  if  the  city  gave  money 
to  the  Salvation  Army  that  is  given  to  the  Associated  Charities,  the 
charity  work  would  be  taken  care  of — ^but  after  giving  the  matter 
careful  study  and  consideration,  I  have  become  convinced  that  the 
Associated  Charities  is  working  on  the  right  lines.  I  have  had  even 
preachers  tell  me  that  the  Associated  Charities  is  coldblooded,  but 

^Lexington  Herald,  January  i,  1914. 


176        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

I  am  sure  that  the  person  making  this  statement  had  not  put  him- 
self thoroughly  in  touch  with  the  work  and  spoke  without  a  full 
knowledge  of  scientific  charity. 

These  are  the  words  of  a  mayor  who  had  been  a  city 
clerk  writing  to  a  gentleman,  a  member  of  the  Commercial 
Club,  who,  later,  in  1 914,  urges  the  claim  of  the  Salvation 
Army  on  the  city  administration.  The  mayor  replies 
direct  to  the  writer  but  sends  her  the  original  recommenda- 
tion as  well,  because  he  knows  "that  the  Association  is  a 
child  of  your  creation. ''  She  replies  so  convincingly  that 
the  Commercial  Club  gentleman  hastens  to  assure  her,  ''I 
am  not  now  and  never  have  been  in  sympathy  with  the 
Salvation  Army — and  while,  of  course,  they  may  reach  a 
soul  now  and  then,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  per  capita 
cost  is  too  high " 

So  she  fought  the  battles  as  new  enemies  or  old  enemies 
in  some  new  guise  presented  themselves. 

It  was  ever  the  respect  she  had  for  the  poor. 

And  in  191 7  the  great  encounter  came!  It  was  one 
of  the  most  heroic  encoimters  ever  engaged  in.  One 
knows  not  where  to  turn  for  analogy  unless  it  be  to  the 
driving  of  the  money-changers  from  the  Temple.  Almost 
alone  and  in  a  fight  few  thought  worth  making,  not  because 
the  issues  were  not  of  sufficient  importance,  but  because 
the  fruits  of  victory  would  be  so  elusive  and  difficult  to 
share.  If  the  encounter  could  only  be  set  forth  in  worthy 
fashion! 

And  she  did  not  want  to  have  to  make  the  fight. 
"Never,"  she  cried  on  January  29,  191 7,  "did  I  feel  less 
like  going  into  a  controversy  with  the  Army."  Her 
mother,  it  will  be  recalled,  was  fatally  ill  and  died  four 
days  later.     Moreover,  the  winter  191 6-1 7  was  one  of  the 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  177 

winters  when  the  hand  of  the  disease  was  on  her.  There 
were  weeks  in  Asheville,  and  when  she  was  allowed  to 
return  the  doctors  were  trying  to  control  her  daily  tasks. 

On  January  30,  191 7,  the  city  officials  included  the 
Salvation  Army  among  those  organizations  to  whom 
grants  of  public  money  were  made  for  the  relief  of  distress 
and  the  service  of  the  poor.  The  organizations  listed 
were  the  Associated  Charities,  $2,500;  the  Children's 
Home,  $2,400;  the  City  Missionary  Society,  $500;  the 
Colored  Orphans'  Home,  $1,500;  the  House  of  Mercy, 
$750;  the  Humane  Society,  $600;  the  Industrial  School, 
$600;  the  Old  Ladies'  Home,  $600;  the  Orphan  Asylum, 
$600;  the  Baby  Milk  Supply,  $1,200;  the  Salvation 
Army,  $720;  the  Public  Health  Nursing  Association 
Emergency  Work,  $2,500;  the  Good  Samaritan  Hospital, 
$7,200;  St.  Joseph's  Hospital,  $7,200:  a  total  of  $31,340. 

The  plea  for  the  Salvation  Army  was  for  the  price  of 
rent  for  a  building  once  used  by  the  Associated  Charities, 
in  which  would  be  housed  and  fed  especially  the  transient 
applicant.  She  presented  in  advance  the  arguments 
against  the  grant.  First,  it  was  not  necessary,  there  were 
the  organizations  already  at  hand  to  do  the  work.  Second 
the  presence  of  the  Army  with  its  indiscriminate  giving 
and  general  solicitation  demoralized  both  the  poor  and 
the  giving  public.  Third,  it  was  not  legal;  the  Army  was 
a  religious  and  not  a  social  organization.  Fourth,  the 
Army  was  an  alien  organization  with  orders  from  its  head- 
quarters— outside  the  state — ^located  first  at  Nashville 
then  at  Cincinnati.  Fifth,  the  officers  were  not  under  the 
control  of  the  local  agencies.  Sixth,  they  kept  inadequate 
records  and  so  could  not  report,  if  they  would,  as  to  their 
work.     Seventh,   the  methods  of  solicitation  were  not 


178        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

actually  legal;  their  women  went  into  saloons  to  beg. 
Eighth,  the  Army  was  an  incorporated  body  chartered 
under  the  laws  of  New  York  having  real  property  worth 
more  than  seven  millions,  personal  property  of  nearly  two 
millions — carrying  on  enterprises  for  a  profit  and  actually 
often  exploiting  its  own  officials  in  the  compulsory  use  of 
the  uniform  whose  supply  the  Army  monopolized. 

She  set  it  all  out  and  gave  all  the  world  to  understand 
that  the  thing  should  not  happen  if  she  could  prevent  its 
happening. 

But  the  grant  was  made.  Why  it  was  made  we  need 
not  try  to  say — for  the  city  officials  were  put  into  a  most 
humiliating  position  in  their  attempt  to  defend  their 
action.  They  were  shown  to  be  ignorant  as  to  what  was 
to  be  done  with  the  money  or  by  whom  it  was  to  be 
handled.'  For  she  sought  an  injunction  against  its 
payment.  It  is  a  strange  and  touching  incident.  Per- 
sonally she  had  nothing  to  gain.  So  few  cared  and  fewer 
understood.  As  though  trying  to  render  her  cause 
unpopular,  the  ofiicials  resorted  to  the  device  of  holding 
up  the  grants  made  to  all  other  organizations.  Their 
conduct  is  impossible  to  explain  and  the  account  of  it 
difficult  to  believe. 

She  won  the  action  in  the  court — the  original  grant 
was  held  invalid;  but  the  lower  court  pointed  out  a  way 
of  making  such  a  grant  valid.  But  when  the  authorities 
followed  the  suggestion  of  the  court,  she  sought  another 
injunction,  and  this  was  fought  neither  by  the  Army  nor 
by  the  city.^  Did  it  pay  ?  The  very  next  winter  the 
same  struggle  against  indiscriminate  relief  had  to  be 

*  See  daily  papers  of  Lexington  beginning  January  10,  191 7. 

*  See  daily  papers  of  Lexington  beginning  June  5  and  July  25,  191 7. 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  179 

fought  over  again  with  an  emergency  relief  committee.' 
She  could,  however,  never  ask,  '*Will  it  pay?"  Others 
she  might  save,  herself  she  could  not  save,  when  truth 
and  respect  for  the  poor  were  issues  in  the  problem. 

This  is  perhaps  the  place  in  which  reference  may  be 
made  to  her  methods  of  raising  money.  Her  two  great 
drives — one  for  Lincoln  School  in  19 10,  and  one  for  the 
Blue  Grass  Sanatorium  in  191 7 — ^have  been  referred  to. 
She  herself  preferred  simple  giving.  She  had  to  share  in 
order  to  enjoy.  She  worked  out  ways  and  schemes  by 
which  what  she  gave  could  be  increased  in  effectiveness. 
She  could  not  alone  give  enough,  and  often  what  she  could 
give  was  of  slight  use  unless  increased  by  the  gifts  of 
others.  So  she  would  give  a  stated  amount,  equal  to  the 
generally  expected  contribution,  and  then  offer  a  larger 
sum  provided  a  given  number  of  others  would  contribute 
similar  amounts;  ten  dollars  straight,  but  twenty-five 
dollars  with  five  others  of  like  amount,  or  fifty  dollars  with 
ten  similar  gifts,  etc.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  method; 
it  is  often  a  very  good  device  to  protect  one's  self  from 
being  finally  called  on  to  give  it  all.  The  extraordinary 
thing  about  her  was  that  after  making  the  offer  she  went 
out  and  found  the  other  nine!  The  possibility  or  impossi- 
bility of  finding  them  was  in  a  way  a  test  to  her  of  whether 
that  object  was  the  one  to  which  cpntributions  should  at 
the  time  be  made.  There  is  a  very  interesting  letter  on 
the  general  subject  that  may  be  quoted : 

I  don't  at  all  agree  with  you  that  my  proposition  to  give  $100 
if  nine  other  persons  did  the  same  is  unreasonable.  In  fact,  I 
think  it  not  only  reasonable,  but  the  best  way  for  raising  the 
most  money., 

*  See  the  papers,  January  16-30,  19 18. 


i8o        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

The  Associated  Charities  has  been  raising  money  in  the  last 
week  in  Lexington  with  several  such  conditional  offers.  The 
President  said  he  would  give  $ioo  if  so  many  others  did.  That 
proposition  has  been  taken  up.  I  have  had  a  standing  offer  for  a 
number  of  years  to  be  one  of  ten  to  give  $25  or  $50.  The  $25  has 
always  been  taken  up,  though  I  and  others  have  had  to  work  pretty 
hard  sometimes  to  get  the  other  nine.  They  tell  me  this  year  that 
they  expect  to  take  me  up  on  the  ten  fifties,  as  I  hope  they  will. 
Otherwise  Desha  and  I  will  each  go  in  with  the  $25  group,  and  he 
will  also  go  in  with  that  one  if  I  go  in  with  the  $50  group.  I  adopted 
that  plan  with  the  Associated  Charities  in  order  to  help  get  the 
money  needed  after  finding  for  some  years  how  little  good  the 
go-in-alone  plan  did  the  society. 

You  will  remember  that  when  I  put  in  the  $100  silently  toward 
the  secretary's  salary  it  didn't  bring  any  others.  I  haven't  been 
giving  it  conditionally  to  advertise  myself,  but  because  I  believe 
it's  the  way  to  get  the  other  nine  hundred,  and  that  one  hundred 
alone  does  little  good.  As  the  interest  increases  I  think  the  con- 
ditions can  profitably  be  stiffened.  If  we  go  into  campaign  this 
year  I  think  we  can  certainly  get  "ten  hundred-dollar  donors. 

Of  course  the  "luck"  comes  only  after  you  have  immolated 
yourself  to  do  the  asking — and  also  very  often  after  that  it  doesn't 
come!  I  dread  asking  people  for  money  as  much  as  any  one  else 
can,  and  in  one  way  it  is  harder  for  me  because  I  have  to  "  beg  "  for  so 
many  different  things.  But,  as  I  have  said,  if  the  Board,  or  whoever 
forms  the  Finance  Committee,  wants  me  to  go  in  on  it,  I  will. 

But,  of  course,  giving  and  asking  did  not  exhaust  the 
efforts.  Yet  how  she  asked!  Personal  appeals  based  on 
every  possible  claim;  underneath  the  fair  exterior  of  her 
begging  there  was  some  impatience  with  those  who  could 
be  expected  to  contribute  only  when  the  weather  was  very 
cold,  the  misery  very  obvious,  but  every  kind  of  claim  was 
put  forth  and  everywhere.  There  was  no  escaping  her! 
And  yet  it  was  never  misleading — her  begging  was  never 
that — and  it  was  always  as  educational  and  as  artistic  as 


THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES  i8i 

it  could  be  in  the  nature  of  things.  When  Woodland 
Park  was  to  be  equipped,  it  was  a  gay  green  tag — a  car- 
nation colored — that  was  offered  for  sale.  When  a  pool- 
was  made  possible,  the  dedication  was  so  charming  that 
anyone  who  could  would  be  tempted  to  give  another  if 
only  to  enjoy  so  beautiful  a  distinction.  But  funda- 
mentally she  wanted  everyone  to  understand  and  to  care. 
She  had  a  respect  for  the  contributor,  too;  and  she  there- 
fore took  infinite  pains  to  inform  and  to  convince,  rather 
than  to  cajole.  She  looked  for  a  fair  day  when  the  devices 
she  used  might  be  no  longer  necessary,  and  she  helped  in 
every  movement  leading  toward  a  fairer  chance.  And 
the  result  was  the  simple  reality  and  immediateness  of 
all  her  work.  She  thought  in  terms  of  the  actual  cost  to 
the  children  she  loved,  the  women  for  whom  she  had 
abounding  sympathy,  the  men  whose  co-operation  in 
building  a  better  community  she  craved. 

In  the  field  of  social  case  work,  too,  she  had  national 
recognition.  She  was  an  officer  of  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Social  Work  as  well  as  of  the  National  Child 
Labor  Committee. 

The  extraordinary  quality  of  her  service  as  a  volunteer 
— an  unpaid  worker  whose  professional  methods  would 
stand  any  technical  test,  a  member  of  boards  who  knew 
as  well  as  any  executive  how  the  thing  should  be  done- — 
was  recognized.  She  gave  substance  to  the  old  claim  of 
the  charity  organization  movement  that  of  the  honorary 
worker  might  be  expected  the  highest  quality  of  service, 
since  the  standards  were  not  those  of  the  wage  bargain 
but  of  the  ideal  itself,  and  the  limit  to  the  day's  work  was 
set  by  no  contract,  by  no  pattern  of  output,  but  by  the 
demands  of  the  task  only.     Thus  was  it  with  her ! 


CHAPTER  IX 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN   . 

It  will  not  be  possible  nor  is  it  necessary  to  trace  in 
detail  the  steps  by  which  her  interest  in  votes  for  women 
was  aroused.  It  will  be  remembered  that  before  her  mar- 
riage she  had  enjoyed  the  associations  with  the  members  of 
the  Fortnightly,  and  she  and  Mrs.  Harrison  had  had  gay 
times  with  histories  and  encyclopedias  and  great  tomes 
on  literature,  philosophy,  and  science.  After  the  Fort- 
nightly was  merged  with  the  other  clubs  to  form  the 
Woman's  Club  of  Central  Kentucky,  she  was  for  a  time 
less  interested;  and  for  a  number  of  years  it  might  be  said 
that  her  activities  relating  to  the  status  of  women  con- 
sisted in  co-operating  with  special  efforts  in  which  joint 
committees  were  formed  among  various  clubs  to  accom- 
plish a  special  object  and  then  disbanded.  It  was  from 
such  a  joint  effort  that  the  McNamara  meeting  had  grown, 
and  the  emergency  meeting  from  which,  the  Civic  League 
finally  resulted. 

Such  an  effort  was  developed  in  the  early  weeks  of  1902 
in  connection  with  the  status  of  women  at  the  University 
of  Kentucky,  then  called  the  Kentucky  State  College. 
Women  students  had  been  admitted  to  the  college  in  1880 
shortly  after  the  creation  of  a  department  of  education; 

182 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       183 

in  1900  an  appropriation  of  $60,000  had  been  allowed  by 
the  legislature  for  a  women's  dormitory;  and  in  1901 
provision  was  made  for  the  salary  of  a  woman  director  of 
physical  education.  In  the  appropriation  act,  provision 
was  made  for  a  supervisory  committee  of  three  discreet, 
prudent,  and  intelligent  women  to  be  appointed  by  the 
governor  for  a  term  of  years;  the  first  committee  being 
women  named  in  the  act.  She  was  one  of  the  three 
named.  ^ 

But  no  steps  had  been  taken  toward  the  construction  of 
the  dormitory;  there  was  no  dean  of  women  nor  any 
department  of  domestic  science  or  household  manage- 
ment. The  women  students  were  receiving  neither  the 
domestic  and  social  supervision  nor  the  academic  and 
professional  training  already  provided  by  many  of  the 
coeducational  institutions  of  the  Middle  West.  A  com- 
mittee of  women,  then,  in  1902,  not  all  from  Lexington, 
made  a  study  of  the  care  given  women  students  in  other 
institutions  and  obtained  a  mass  of  interesting  information 
much  of  which  was  published  in  the  daily  papers.  Two 
communications  were  eventually  addressed  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  University  Board  of  Trustees  urging  the 
appointment  of  a  dean  of  women  and  the  establishment 
of  a  department  of  domestic  science.  Her  chief  service 
in  connection  with  these  efforts  was  in  preparing  state- 
ments for  the  Herald,  which  gave  aid  and  comfort  by 
editorial  comment  and  support. 

•  At  this  time  a  stupid  course  was  being  followed  by 
certain  representatives  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  legis- 
lature with  reference  to  the  right  enjoyed  by  women  in 

»  Lexington  Herald,  January  11,  1900.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Scott  and  Mrs,  Ida 
Harrison  were  the  other  two. 


i84        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

cities  of  the  second  class  to  vote  on  school  matters.  The 
history  of  the  right  of  Kentucky  women  to  vote  in  school 
elections  was  an  ancient  though  a  restricted  right.  In  1 838, 
ten  years  before  the  Seneca  Falls  Convention,  widows  with 
children  of  school  age  were  given  the  right  to  vote  in  elec- 
tions of  trustees  of  district  schools.  By  the  constitution 
of  1850,  women  were  rendered  eligible  to  the  office  of 
county  superintendent  of  schools,  and  in  1901,  twenty 
women  in  Kentucky  were  holding  that  office  in  various 
parts  of  the  state.  In  1888,  widows  with  children  of  school 
age,  or  tax-paying  widows  and  tax-paying  spinsters,  were 
given  the  right  to  vote  on  questions  of  school  taxation; 
and  in  1894,  women  in  cities  of  the  second  class  were 
granted  in  the  charters  enacted  during  the  session  of  that 
year  school  suffrage. 

Under  this  grant  of  power,  women  had  voted  in  school 
matters,  had  been  elected  to  boards  of  education,  and  their 
activities  seemed  to  threaten  the  grip  of  the  politicians  on 
the  perquisites  of  the  school  system.  It  was  therefore  pro- 
posed to  repeal  the  clause  granting  the  suffrage  to  women 
in  these  cities.  The  charge  made  by  those  proposing 
the  measure  was  that  the  ignorant  and  degraded  and 
especially  the  negro  women  voted  in  such  large  numbers 
as  to  outweigh  the  influence  of  the  educated  and  public- 
spirited  and  that  the  educated  women  did  not  desire  nor 
exercise  the  right  they  had  been  granted.  The  charge 
was  shown  to  be  without  foundation,  so  far  as  white  and 
colored  voters  were  concerned,  by  citing  the  relative 
numbers  of  these  two  groups  voting  in  Lexington  and 
Covington.  Moreover,  aggressive  committees  were  organ- 
ized to  go  to  Frankfort  and  to  appear  before  the  legislative 
committees  that  were  pretending  to  consider  the  matter. 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       185 

Vigorous  statements  were  sent  by  the  women  of  Lexington 
to  the  legislature  on  February  6,  1902;  and  women's 
delegations  sought  hearings  and,  with  the  co-operation 
of  leading  men  of  the  community,  presented  their  case 
in  arguments  that  were  unanswerable,  except  by  the 
votes  of  a  majority  whose  reply  was  substantially,  "Why 
argue  ?    We  have  the  votes. " 

The  provision  in  the  charter  was  in  fact  repealed  by  a 
strict  party  vote,  one  Democrat  opposing  and  one  Repub- 
lican supporting  the  measure.  Not  until  191 2  did  women 
again  obtain  the  power  to  vote  on  school  matters.  The' 
right  then  obtained  was,  however,  bestowed  on  all  the 
women  of  the  state  "possessing  the  legal  quahfications 
required  of  male  voters  ....  and  who  in  addition  are 
able  to  read  and  write."' 

In  this  early  skirmish  the  Herald  rendered  to  the 
women  valiant  service,  and  Madge  was  becoming  both 
admirably  informed  regarding  the  questions  at  issue  and 
thoroughly  grounded  in  the  logic  on  which  the  women's 
claims  were  based. 

In  the  winter  of  1903-4,  as  has  been  said,  she  was  com- 
pelled by  her  own  health  and  that  of  her  mother  to  spend 
a  considerable  period  in  a  sanatorium  in  Colorado  and 
while  there  became  still  more  familiar  with  the  general 
suffrage  movement.  Eastern  periodicals  delighted  to 
publish  attacks  on  the  women  voters  of  Colorado.  Special 
correspondents  and  investigators  went  out  to  report.  Cer- 
tain charges  made  by  Colorado  officials  led  to  Senator 
Shaf  roth's  entering  the  arena  in  behalf  of  the  women  voters 
of  that  state.  She  was  greatly  interested  and  tried  to  send 
back  dispassionate  statements  for  those  in  Lexington  who 

*  Acts  of  igi2,  chap.  47,  p.  193. 


i86        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

were  interested  in  the  movement.  It  may  perhaps 
be  said  that  she  came  back  from  Colorado  a  convinced 
advocate  of  the  women's  claims  to  substitute  direct 
political  power  for  the  indirect  influence  on  which  they 
were  supposed  to  rely  in  Kentucky.  It  has  been  seen  that 
she  came  back  likewise  determined  to  attack  with  organ- 
ized effort  the  dread  malady  of  which  she  herself  had  been 
already  a  victim,  and  public-health  problems  require  per- 
sistent, incisive,  and  direct  action. 

In  1905  she  tried  the  experiment  of  taking  charge  of  a 
weekly  page  in  the  Herald — the  Sunday  edition — and 
directing  its  use  to  the  end  of  enlightening  any  women  who 
would  read  on  all  the  questions  of  child  care  and  woman's 
advancement,  and  other  problems  in  which  she  was 
interested.  The  emblem  at  the  head  of  the  page  was  at 
first  an  arc  of  a  circle  with  the  words  "Woman's  Sphere" 
on  the  arc,  and  underneath  the  quotation  from  Dr.  Heber 
Newton:  "Whatever  Woman  can  do  that,  by  divine 
ordination,  she  ought  to  do,  by  human  allowance  she 
should  be  privileged  to  do,  by  force  of  destiny  in  the  long 
run  she  will  do."  But  on  Easter  Sunday  of  1906,  a  new 
design  of  the  sphere  was  adopted.  It  was  put  on  as  a  new 
"Easter  bonnet,"  she  said.  Only  a  person  familiar  with 
the  technique  of  newspaper  make-up  can  realize  the  labor 
and  skill  that  went  into  that  page. 

Fortunately,  we  have  her  own  account  of  this  under- 
taking, for  the  page  gained  a  national  reputation;  and  Mr. 
Paul  Kellogg,  editor  of  Charities  and  the  Commons^  wrote 
to  her  saying: 

We  have  watched  with  considerable  interest  the  uses  to  which 
you  have  put  the  Woman's  Page  of  the  Lexington  Herald.     It  is 

'  Now  the  Survey. 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       187 

such  a  relief  in  contrast  to  the  things  which  go  into  the  pages  for 
women  on  most  papers,  and  I  am  wondering  if  you  would  not  be 
disposed  at  your  convenience  to  write  a  short  article  for  Charities 
and  the  Commons  on  what  can  be  done  with  a  woman's  page  in  a 
newspaper  in  a  town  the  size  of  Lexington.  We  go  to  a  lot  of 
editors  and  club  women  throughout  the  country  3.nd  those  inter- 
ested in  philanthropy,  and  some  of  them  might  taJce  the  hint 
— especially  if  the  article  was  concrete  and  told  specifically  the 
different  things  you  have  undertaken  on  the  page  and  carried 
through  (or  failed  to  carry  through);  the  attitude  of  other  local 
papers  toward  it,  etc. 

She  wrote  in  reply: 

A  Woman's  Page  appearing  as  a  Sunday  supplement  feature 
of  a  daily  paper  of  a  southern  town  demonstrates  the  reason  for 
what  the  Rev.  Anna  Shaw  designates  the  ''wailing  cry  of  a  recent 
critic,  that  we  have  fallen  upon  a  time  when  doctrines  are  taught 
to  women  by  women."  This  page  was  undertaken  some  six 
months  ago  with  a  distinct  idea  that  it  was  to  be  different  from  the 
ordinary  Woman's  Page  of  the  Sunday  supplement;  that  it  was 
not  to  be  given  up  wholly  to  discussions  of  fashion  and  to  ways  of 
making  Christmas  presents  out  of  old  duck  skirts — to  "squaw 
talk"  in  short.  The  editor  believed  that  it  would  be  as  unjust  to 
consider  such  matters  the  sole  interest  of  the  average  woman  as  to 
believe  that  the  page  containing  news  of  the  prize  ring  and  the  race 
track  bounded  the  interests  of  the  average  man..  Shirtwaists  and 
Christmas  presents  undoubtedly  have  their  place  in  the  thoughts 
of  most  women,  but  they  do  not  entirely  absorb  them. 

The  present  page  was  planned  to  handle  club  interests,  educa- 
tional interests,  industrial,  literary,  artistic,  religious,  civic,  what- 
ever came  within  the  scope  of  the  intelligent  woman's  interest  and 
seemed  at  the  time  most  pertinent.  The  page  has  been  headed 
recently  with  a  caption  "  Woman's  Sphere"  followed  by  a  quotation 
fr9m  the  Rev.  Heber  Newton,  "  Whatever  Woman  can  do  that,  by 
divine  ordination,  she  ought  to  do,  by  human  allowance  she  should 
be  privileged  to  do,  by  force  of  destiny  in  the  long  run  she  will  do. " 
Under  this  definition  of  Woman's  Sphere  it  will  be  seen  that  any- 
thing from  cabbages  to  politics  can  be  appropriately  treated. 


i88        MADELINE  McDDWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

It  is  one  of  the  purposes  of  the  page  to  bring  about  a  public 
realization  of  the  fact  that  women  are  thinking  seriously  and  to 
some  purpose  on  a  number  of  subjects  not  usually  considered 
feminine.  It  desires  to  furnish  news  and  comment  on  these  subjects 
for  the  women  who  are  already  interested  and  to  interest  other 
women  in  them.  The  editor  believes  that  the  average  woman 
needs  some  stimulus  to  broader  interests  than  she  now  has. 
Much  of  the  philanthropy  and  the  rational  reform  of  the  pres- 
ent day  depend  largely  upon  the  support  of  women.  While 
noting  progress  in  these  lines,  suggestions  and  experiments  per- 
taining to  them,  it  is  believed  that  the  page  will  not  only  interest 
and  encourage  those  women  already  given  to  such  lines  of  thought, 
but  that  it  may  entice  other  women  into  an  interest  which  they  do 
not  now  feel. 

The  page  has  been  made  to  some  extent  the  organ  of  the 
Women's  Clubs.  It  has  given  a  large  portion  of  its  space  to 
educational  matters,  commenting  editorially  on  local  conditions 
in  the  City  of  Lexington  and  in  the  State  of  Kentucky.  In  the 
last  two  months,  since  the  Legislature  of  Kentucky  has  been  in 
session,  there  has  been  continued  comment  on  educational  measures 
before  that  body;  on  laws  affecting  women  and  children,  such  as 
the  wife  desertion  bill,  the  bill  providing  equal  guardianship  of 
father  and  mother,  the  bill  raising  the  age  of  protection  for  girls, 
the  child  labor  bill  and  the  juvenile  court  bill.  A  good  deal  of  space 
has  been  devoted  also  to  the  bill  providing  for  a  State  Sanatorium 
for  tuberculous  patients.  This  bill  had  its  origin  in  an  organization 
for  the  prevention  of  tuberculosis  formed  in  Lexington,  which 
includes  a  large  number  of  women  in  its  membership  and  the  officers 
of  which  are  men  and  women. 

At  this  time  she  began  again  to  work  more  actively 
\\dth  the  woman's  club  movement.  Reference  has  been 
made  to  her  relationship  to  that  movement.  She  had  not 
been  greatly  interested  since  the  old  Fortnightly  days, 
but  about  this  time  the  State  Federation  was  taking  an 
active  part  in  movements  for  school  improvement  and 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       189 

child  welfare.  In  1906-7,  after  the  enactment  of  the 
first  child  labor  law,  she  became  a  member  of  the  in- 
dustry and  child  labor  division  of  the  State  Federation. 
The  following  year  and  each  year  until  191 3-1 4  her  name 
appears  in  yearbooks  of  the  Federation  as  likewise  a  mem- 
ber of  the  education  division. 

Among  those  whose  names  appeared  from  the  first  on 
the  records  of  the  Civic  League  was  that  of  Professor 
R.  N.  Roark,  of  the  State  College  department  of  education. 
Professor   Roark   supported  all   forward-looking  public 
measures,  and  Mrs.  Roark,  herself  a  university  woman  of 
ability  and  charm,  became  in  1907-8  chairman  of  the  edu- 
cation department  of  the  State  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs.     That  organization  was  at  this  time  greatly  exer- 
cised over  the  figures  with  reference  to  Kentucky's  status 
in  the  matter  of  illiteracy  that  had  been  made  known 
through  the  publications  of  the  United  States  Census.     It 
had  appeared  that  in  the  list  of  fifty  states  and  territories 
arranged  in  order  of  literacy  Kentucky  had  below  it  only 
Louisiana,    with   her    overwhelming    negro   population. 
North  Carolina,  with  her  onus  both  of  negroes  and  moun- 
tain whites,  and  New  Mexico  with  her  hybrid  Spanish  and 
Indian  population.     Not  only  were  the  figures  shockingly 
humiliating  to  the  state  as  a  whole,  but  an  analysis  showed 
the  Blue  Grass  region  to  have  greatly  neglected  the  edu- 
cation of  its  own  young.     The  Federation  had  undertaken 
to  reveal  these  facts  and  to  inaugurate  a  veritable  crusade 
in  behalf  of  popular  education,  and  Madge  went  into  that 
effort  with  all  her  power. 

The  program  of  the  Federation  included  the  provision 
of  educational  facilities  for  all  portions  of  the  state,  the 
estabhshment  of  a  rural  demonstration  school,  like  the 


igo        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGfe 

Irishtown  demonstration  for  the  city,  the  awakening  of 
interest  everywhere  in  school  improvement. 

As  a  part  of  that  campaign  she  took  in  1908-9  the 
chairmanship  of  the  legislative  division  of  the  Federa- 
tion, and  for  the  next  four  years  was  at  the  head  of  that 
division. 

In  one  non-legislative  year,  1909-10,  it  was  allowed  to 
lapse,  but  the  next,  1910-11,  it  was  kept  very  much  alive 
and  very  active. 

The  legislative  program  of  1908  included  twelve 
measures,  of  which  only  those  of  concern  to  the  main  inter- 
est of  her  life  will  be  noted  here. 

The  school  suffrage  measure,  which  was  intended  to 
undo  the  deed  of  1902  and  to  obtain  school  suffrage  for  all 
women  possessing  the  required  educational  qualifications — 
for  the  women  agreed  to  accept  the  requirements  of  read- 
ing and  writing — was  introduced  both  as  an  item  m  a 
county  school  board  bill  that  the  Federation  was  pushing 
and  as  a  separate  measure.  The  provision  was  early 
stricken  from  the  county  bill,  which  passed  with  the 
women  left  out.  That  measure,  though  "a  defective 
law, "  she  said,  still  estabhshed  a  principle  of  county 
taxation,  and  county  organization,  that  the  Federation 
thought  very  important.  But  the  school  suffrage  measure 
failed  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  had  been  drafted  by  the 
best  legal  talent,  was  introduced  under  favorable  con- 
ditions as  an  educational  measure,  and  much  educational 
work  had  been  done  throughout  the  state  in  its  behalf.' 

She  reported  to  the  Federation  that 

letters  were  sent  out  to  the  club  presidents  of  the  State,  asking  that 
a  special  work  be  done  to  create  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  bill;  that 

»  Yearbook  of  the  Kentucky  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  1908-9,  p.  76. 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       191 

mass  meetings  of  women  be  held,  that  club  meetings  be  devoted  to 
its  discussion,  that  the  local  newspapers  be  used  and  that  the 
Representatives  be  seen.  A  further  letter  was  sent  enclosing  a 
pamphlet  describing  the  effects  of  school  suffrage  in  twenty-nine 
other  states  of  the  Union.  The  same  pamphlet  was  sent  also  with  a 
personal  letter  to  prominent  women  in  towns  not  represented  in  the 
Federation,  asking  that  they  agitate  the  subject  among  women  of 
their  section.  It  was  sent  to  every  member  of  the  Legislature.  It 
was  sent  to  the  presidents  of  the  forty  County  School  Improvement 
Leagues  in  the  State,  asking  that  they  bring  it  to  the  consideration 
of  their  members 

....  A  copy  was  likewise  sent  to  the  editors  of  over  two 
hundred  newspapers  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  with  the  request 
that  they  print  it  and  make  editorial  comment  thereon.  Some 
thirty-odd  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the  State  of  Kentucky 
were  asked  to  write  their  opinions  of  the  measure  and  its  possible 
effects  and  these  opinions,  published  in  pamphlet  form  and  sent 
out  to  the  members  of  the  Legislature  and  to  others,  you  have 
possibly  seen.  In  reply  to  the  letters  to  newspaper  editors,  a  num- 
ber of  marked  copies  containing  the  bill  and  containing  editorial 
reference  to  it  were  sent  me,  and  some  of  the  letters  were  so  warmly 
enthusiastic  they  were  funny.  So  also  were  most  of  the  letters 
from  the  thirty  men  chosen 

There  were,  in  all,  five  hearings  before  Legislative  committees 
on'  the  measure.  In  these  hearings  a  dozen  or  two  clubwomen 
from  seven  or  eight  cities  participated.  As  a  rule,  the  hearing  was 
announced  at  a  late  date  and  only  those  women  could  be  gotten  who 
lived  nearby.  The  chairman  of  the  Education  committee,  who, 
in  the  absence  of  the  chairman  of  the  Legislative  committee  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  session,  did  a  large  portion  of  the  legislative 
work,  says  with  confidence  that  if  the  measure  had  ever  come  to  a 
vote  it  would  have  been  passed  by  both  houses.  The  manner  of 
the  killing  of  the  bill  was  artistic.  It  was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  Legislative  committee  to  which  it  had  been  referred  and  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  committee  on  suffrage  and  elections — from 
which  it  never  emerged ' 

'  Ibid.,  pp.  75-77. 


192        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

At  the  same  session  of  the  legislature  an  amended 
child  labor  law,  an  amended  juvenile  court  law,  an 
amended  Compulsory  School  Law,  and  a  law  creating  an 
Educational  Commission'  were  all  passed.  This  last  act 
provided  for  representation  of  the  State  Federation  on  the 
Commission  and  Madge  was  elected  as  that  representative. 

The  work  she  did  on  that  Commission  she  described  in 
the  following  report  to  the  Federation: 

Appointed  on  the  Educational  Commission  in  the  fall  of  1909 
as  the  Federation  representative,  in  place  of  Dr.  Spencer,  I  attended 
all  of  the  somewhat  arduous  meetings  of  the  commission  in  which 
the  work  of  the  past  eighteen  months  was  reviewed  and  put  in  final 
shape  and  a  number  of  new  measures  dealt  with.  Mrs.  Roark  was 
then  a  member  of  the  Commission  as  Acting  President  of  the  East- 
em  Normal  School,  and  together  we  tried  to  represent  the  interests 
of  women  as  well  as  to  render  whatever  service  we  could  on  all  the 
measures  under  discussion. 

An  effort  made  by  Dr.  Spencer  and  by  Mrs.  Roark  to  make  a 
woman  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  mandatory  did 
not  succeed.  It  had,  however,  the  value  that  such  agitations 
always  have  of  causing  prominent  educators  to  reflect  on  the  value 
of  a  woman  in  that  position.  As  the  law  was  drawn  women  are 
eligible. 

On  our  motion  the  Commission  endrsoed  the  bill  for  school 
suffrage  for  women,  suggesting  some  changes  in  the  bill  presented 
at  the  last  session,  and  referring  it  to  a  sub-committee  composed 
of  Mrs.  Breckinridge  and  Dr.  Ramsey.  To  the  same  committee 
was  also  referred  the  compulsory  school  law  for  cities,  and  the  com- 
pulsory law  for  rural  districts  and  the  school  law  for  cities  of  the 
second  class. 

The  compulsory  school  law  for  cities  was  passed  by  the  Legis- 
lature as  presented.  Neither  the  rural  compulsory  law  nor  the 
school  law  for  cities  of  the  second  class  was  presented.    The  law 

'  Acts  of  1908,  chap.  56,  p.  133;  chap.  65,  p.  170;  Acts  of  1912,  chap.  67, 
p.  181. 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       193 

for  first  class  cities,  however,  similar  in  most  essentials  to  the  laws 
drawn  for  cities  of  the  other  class,  passed  the  Legislature.  Under 
the  second  class  city  bill  drawn,  women  were  made  eligible  not  only 
to  the  school  board  but  as  electors.  It  is  probable  that  this  bill 
will  be  passed  at  the  next  session.  In  the  bill  for  the  government 
of  first  class  cities,  women  were  made  eligible  to  the  School  Board. 

The  body  of  laws  drawn  by  the  Educational  Commission,  of 
which  a  synopsis  of  the  principal  ones  was  published  in  a  prelimi- 
nary report  of  the  Commission,  is  undoubtedly  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  our  educational  advance.  In  addition  to  the  two  mentioned, 
the  first  class  city  bill  and  the  city  compulsory  school  law,  but  one 
other  bill  drawn  was  passed, — the  text  book  bill  referring  the  choice 
of  text  books  to  a  County  Commission.  The  main  strength  of  the 
Commission  was  put  to  saving  what  had  already  been  won  at  a  past 
session,  particularly  the  County  School  Board  Bill.  Three  other 
bills  were  presented  to  compel  this,  and  numerous  dangerous 
amendments  had  to  be  killed. 

Though  constructive  work  accomplished  at  this  session  by  the 
Commission  was  slight,  there  is  really  no  doubt  that  its  service  was 
valuable.  The  Superintendent  of  Schools,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer, 
just  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Legislature,  sums  it  up  thus: 
*'  Really  we  are  in  good  shape,  no  damage,  a  fine  system  and  another 

chance We  have  met  the  enemy  and  they  have  taken  no 

scalps.'' 

Another  member  of  the  Commission,  Superintendent  L.  N. 
Taylor,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer  says:  "Our  report  has  been  re- 
jected and  our  work  discredited,  but  I  feel  abundant  assurance 
that  the  main  and  best  feature  of  our  work  will  yet  find  expression 
in  our  statutes.     The  movement  has  been  retarded  but  it  has  not 

been  defeated.    With  delay  it  will  gather  strength Right 

is  too  persistent  a  force  to  be  finally  defeated. 

The  school  suffrage  measure  that  failed  in  1908  v^^as 
reintroduced  in  19 10,  but  again  failed: 

Our  School  Suffrage  bill  was  endorsed  by  the  Kentucky  Educa- 
tional Conmiission.  It  was  presented  in  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Claude 
Thomas,  to  whom  we  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  his  sincere  and 


194        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

earnest  support.  A  favorable  report  followed  a  hearing  before  the 
Elections  Committee.  At  this  hearing,  the  speakers  were  from 
Lexington,  Louisville,  Frankfort  and  Bowling  Green,  and  were  both 
men  and  women,  as  in  subsequent  hearings  before  the  House  Com- 
mittee. The  Senate  passed  the  bill  17  to  12,  but  too  late  for  it  to 
go  from  Senate  to  House,  as  the  House  Rules  Committee,  on  which 
our  friends  the  enemy  were  in  control,  then  had  charge  of  affairs. 
It  was  presented  in  the  House  by  Mr.  Eugene  Graves,  of 
Paducah.  The  bill  was  referred  to  a  distinctly  hostile  committee. 
Efforts  to  get  it  to  another  committee  failed.  We  did  our  utmost 
by  hearings  before  the  committee,  through  the  newspapers,  and 
before  the  House.  The  committee  was  controlled  by  the  chairman, 
Mr.  Harry  G.  Meyers,  of  Covington;  it  brought  in  an  adverse 
report.  Our  one  fighting  friend  on  the  committee,  Mr.  Dillard 
Hunter,  of  Winchester,  brought  in  a  minority  report;  a  motion  to 
substitute  this  was  lost.  A  change  of  the  vote  of  five  of  those 
voting  against  the  measure  would  have  carried  it.  These  votes 
might  have  been  suppHed  by  Louisville,  or  by  Qovington,  or 
Newport.  The  measure, was  not  rejected  by  the  State;  it  was  de- 
feated by  cities  of  the  first  and  second  class,  for  selfish  reasons.  The 
leaders  of  the  liquor  interests  were  the  leaders  of  the  opposition. 
With  human  intelligence,  it  can  be  won  at  another  session,  if  the 
women  of  the  Federation  will,  in  the  meantime,  do  their  duty  in  the 
matter  of  forming  public  sentiment  and  getting  and  spreading 
information  as  to  school  conditions.^ 

In  191 2  its  passage  was  finally  secured,  but  not  with- 
out continued  effort: 

"Our  School  Suffrage  measure,  although  it  was  embodied  in  the 
Democratic  platform,  was  not  passed  without  a  struggle.  It  was 
freely  predicted  a  few  days  before  the  Legislature  adjourned,  that 
having  passed  the  House  it  would  never  pass  the  Senate,  and  even 
some  of  our  friends  advised  \is  to  let  it  die  without  an  open  strug- 
gle.   We  rejected  this  advice,  however,  and  the  bill  is  now  a  law. 

During  the  Federation  year  we  did  not  remit  our  effort  to 
advance  popular  interest  in  the  measure,  both  among  women  and 

'  Yearbook  of  the  Kentucky  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  1910-11,  p.  32. 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       195 

among  men.  Circular  letters  and  literature  were  sent  out  to  all 
candidates  for  the  Legislature,  and  another  set  of  letters  and  litera- 
ture later,  to  those  elected  to  the  Legislature.  The  aid  of  the 
county  superintendent  was  also  thus  solicited.  Much  work  was 
done  this  year  by  individual  members  of  the  clubs  in  personally 
distributing  literature.  I  calculate  that  in  the  course  of  the  several 
years'  work  for  the  School  Suffrage  bill  not  less  than  100,000  pieces 
of  literature  have  been  distributed.  This  allows  for  a  margin  of 
about  s,ooo  which  may  still  be  reposing  in  the  closets  and  attics  of 
clubs  and  club  members.^ 

The  labor,  as  she  describes  it,  involved  in  this  work 
cannot  be  measured  or  estimated.  It  meant  poring  over 
reports  concerning  the  w^ork  done  in  all  kinds  of  com- 
munities from  which  help  for  the  varied  sections  of 
Kentucky  might  be  drawn,  speaking  before  every  kind  of 
group,  the  press,  the  farmers  and  the  farmers'  wives, 
women's  clubs;  it  meant  drafting  legislation  and  urging 
it  on  the  legislative  committees. 

In  the  passage  quoted,  she  refers  to  the  great  task  of 
awakening  and  arousing  the  women.  This  meant  both 
speaking  to  groups  of  women  and  the  preparation  of  state- 
ments of  facts  and  presentation  of  argument  that  could  be 
understood  by  the  simplest  reader.  It  called  for  that  fine 
art  in  writing  that  is  grounded  in  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
in  respect  for  the  prospective  reader,  and  in  a  passionate 
desire  to  secure  a  following. 

In  these  early  campaigns  she  went  all  over  Kentucky, 
she  spoke  to  such  a- variety  of  groups  of  voters  in  such  a 
variety  of  localities  that  from  that  time  there  was  no  place 
in  which  she  was  not  at  home.  At  the  risk  of  repeating 
and  of  possible  prosiness,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  the 
warfare  she  waged  under  all  the  varying  conditions  was 

^  Ibid.,  1912-13,  p.  no. 


196         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

ever  against  the  same  kind  of  enemy,  the  small  politician, 
the  selfish  interest,  whiskey,  vice,  and  greed.  But  she 
knew  that  the  great  citadel  to  be  overcome  was  indifference 
and  ignorance.  And  the  passion  of  her  love  for  children, 
the  dehght  of  her  own  heart  in  beauty,  the  consciousness 
that  her  own  delight  could  never  be  untarnished  until  all 
eyes  capable  of  seeing  had  at  least  the  chance  to  look, 
these  sustained  and  indeed  compelled  her  to  an  activity 
of  which  the  records  seem  incredible.  In  April,  191 1,  she 
described  the  whole  effort  in  a  speech  during  the  Four- 
teenth Conference  for  Education  in  the  South,^  of  which 
Mr.  Oswald  G.  Villard,  then  editor  of  the  New  York  Eve- 
ning Post  J  wrote:  * 

There  were  a  number  of  brilliant  representatives  of  the  women 
of  the  South  present,  among  them  Mrs.  Beverly  B.  Munford  of 
Virginia,  and  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  of  Kentucky.  The  latter's 
touching  speech  on  " Public  Schools  and  Southern  Development" 
on  Thursday  afternoon  in  the  Centennial  Club  auditorium  was 
indubitably  the  most  brilliant  utterance  of  the  entire  convention. 
At  one  time  she  fairly  brought  tears  to  the  eyes  of  her  auditors,  and 
her  plea  for  the  ballot  for  women,  that  the  mother  might  follow  her 
children  into  the  schools  and  into  other  communal  institutions,  is 
said  to  have  shaken  the  faith  even  of  an  anti-suffrage  editor  of  the 
Outlook  who  was  in  attendance.  Certainly  this  granddaughter  of 
Henry  Clay  made  an  impression  upon  her  auditors  that  will  not 
readily  be  forgotten.  She  and  her  fellow-workers  from  the  South 
who  were  present  might  fairly  be  said  to  be  actuated  by  a  thor- 
oughly militant  spirit,  had  that  term  not  been  associated  with 
window-breaking  and  other  forms  of  lawlessness.  Had  it  been  a 
political  gathering  they  would  have  been  classified  as  advanced 
insurgents,  because  of  their  interest  in  social  reforms  and  uplifting 
movements  of  every  kind.  Moreover,  some  of  them  were  dissatis- 
fied with  their  treatment  by  the  Conference,  as  were  the  negroes 

*  She  spoke  at  length  again  the  following  year  before  the  Fifteenth  Con- 
ference.    See  Proceedings,  p.  222. 


EARLY  EFFORTS  IN  BEHALF  OF  WOMEN       197 

of  Nashville,  who  were  plainly  told  in  advance  of  the  gathering  that 
their  presence  at  the  hearings  were  not  wanted.  The  two  white 
women  who  appeared  on  the  main  programme  were  there  to  relate 
experiences,  not  to  advance  theories  or  put  forth  opinions.  Thus 
Mrs.  Cora  Wilson  Stewart  told  a  touching  story  of  the  "Moonlight 
Schools  of  Rowan  County,  Kentucky,"  and  Miss  Susie  V.  Powell 
of  Mississippi  on  Friday  related  the  story  of  the  work  for  school 
improvement  in  her  state.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  all  the  women 
workers  in  the  cause,  who  are  beginning  to  comment  on  the  fact  that 
there  is  not  a  single  woman  on  the  Southern  Educational  or  General 
Educational  Boards.  It  was  pointed  out  by  them  that  these 
organizations,  admirably  officered  and  manned  as  they  are,  and 
having  the  Rockefeller  gifts  behind  them,  are  confronting  a  danger 
which  is  not  negligible  by  reason  of  the  celebrity  and  ability,  and 
often  farsighted  vision  with  which  they  dispatch  their  work.^ 

But  the  brilliant  work  she  had  done  in  the  State  Federa- 
tion had  been  known  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  state. 
It  was  recognized  that  she  was  prepared  for  a  larger  field 
and  could  take  her  part  on  a  larger  stage.  She  was  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  of  the  speakers  at  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  in  Boston  in  June, 
1908,  where  she  reported  on  the  Kentucky  work,^  and  in 
the  autumn  of  19 10  she  was  elected  to  the  Executive  Board 
of  that  organization  and  served  on  the  council  committee 
and  as  board  member  of  its  education  department.  She 
did  not,  however,  stand  for  re-election  at  the  end  of  her 
first  term.  She  attended  the  meeting  in  191 2  at  San 
Francisco,  where  she  presented  a  brief  report  from  the 
council^  of  which  she  had  been  a  member,  and  Mrs. 
Philip  N.  Moore,  who  had  been  since  1908  president  of  the 
Federation,  writes  of  her  service  in  the  following  words: 

Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  was  an  earnest  member  of  the  General 
Federation  Board  from  1910  to  191 2.     She  represented  not  only 
»  New  York  Evening  Post,  April  7,  191 1. 
»  See  her  report  to  the  Ninth  Biennial  Convention. 
3  Official  Proceedings,  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  p.  40. 


igS        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

the  charming  courtesy  of  the  South,  but  the  helpful  strength  of  the 
Northern  CUmes.  Such  combination  is  rare,  and  every  member  of 
the  Board  appreciated  her  presence.  We  realize  what  a  loss  has 
come  not  alone  to  her  state,  of  which  she  was  so  proud,  but  to  the 
entire  country,  to  which  she  gave  such  loyal  devotion. 

But  her  mind  was  turning  more  and  more  to  the  necessity 
of  acquiring  the  instrument  for  direct  influence  upon  pub- 
lic affairs,  and,  from  191 2  on,  while  she  spoke  before  many 
groups,  she  was  impatient  for  the  opportunity  to  work 
directly,  and  perhaps  chiefly,  for  the  vote  as  an  instrument 
in  the  accomplishment  of  the  social  ends  that  were  ever 
before  her  eyes. 

Her  activities  in  the  Civic  League,  the  Charities,  the 
tuberculosis  and  Federation  work  had  not  exhausted  her 
efforts.  She  had  for  several  years  identified  herself  vdth 
the  Kentucky  Equal  Rights  Association.  She  had  pushed 
the  measures  with  which  that  Association  was  specially 
identified — non-support  and  abandonment,  coguardian- 
ship,  the  membership  of  women  on  boards  of  management 
of  correctional  and  educational  institutions,  etc.  In  191 1 
she  was  an  honored  speaker  before  the  National  American 
Woman's  Rights  Association  at  its  Louisville  meeting  on 
^'The  Prospect  for  Woman's  Suffrage  in  the  South,"  and  in 
the  autumn  of  191 2  she  accepted  for  the  term  of  three  years 
the  presidency  of  the  state  association.  To  the  years  of 
work  that  lay  between  her  election  in  191 2  and  the  brilli- 
ant and  imique  completion  of  that  work  in  securing  the 
ratification  of  the  federal  amendment  by  the  Kentucky 
legislature  on  the  first  day  of  the  session  of  1920,  as  no 
ratification  has  ever  been  secured  before,  and  in  the  casting 
of  her  vote  in  the  autumn  of  1920,  the  next  chapter  will 
be  devoted. 


CHAPTER  X 

VOTES  FOR  WOMEN 
Trtte  to  a  Vision — steadfast  to  a  Dream. — Stephen  Phillips. 

The  Kentucky  Equal  Rights  Association  had  been 
organized  in  November,  1888.  At  that  time  the  status 
of  women  in  Kentucky  under  the  common  law  had  not 
been  altered.  For  the  married  woman  the  law  of  cover- 
ture still  prevailed.  She  could  make  no  will,  enter  into  no 
contract,  own  no  personal  property.  If  she  worked  for 
wages,  they  belonged  to  her  husband,  who  had  also  the 
right  to  manage  such  real  property  as  she  might  own. 
The  father  was  sole  guardian  of  the  children;  the  mother, 
as  Blacks  tone  remarked,  being  "entitled  to  reverence  and 
respect. ''  For  women  outside  marriage,  the  "age  of 
consent"  was  twelve,  which  was  also  the  age  of  lawful 
marriage  for  girls.  The  microscopic  right  to  school  suf- 
frage granted  in  1838  to  widows  with  children  of  school  age 
has  already  been  referred  to.  Otherwise  in  the  field  of 
poHtics  they  enjoyed  only  the  right  to  petition.  By  191 2 
that  situation  had  been  greatly  altered,  and  much  legis- 
lation had  been  obtained. 

A  married  woman  had  been  given  the  right  to  make  a 
will  (1894) ;  a  property  rights  law  had  been  passed  (1894) ; 
the  wife's  claim  to  her  own  earnings  had  been  recognized 
(1900) ;  the  presence  of  women  on  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Houses  of  Reform  for  Juvenile  Offenders  (1896)  and 
the  appointment  of  women  physicians  for  women's  wards 
in  the  hospitals  for  the  insane  (1898),  had  been  made 
mandatory;    the  age  of  consent  had  been  raised  from 

199 


200        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

twelve  to  sixteen  years;  the  coguardianship  law,  recogniz- 
ing the  mother's  claim  to  her  child,  had  been  passed  (1910) ; 
and  an  act  limiting  the  work  of  women  in  industry  to  ten 
hours  a  day  or  sixty  hours  a  week  became  law  in  191 2. 

The  struggle  for  school  suffrage  has  been  reviewed. 
During  the  years  from  1902  on,  the  effort  to  secure  the 
presidential  suffrage  had  met  with  no  encouragement, 
though  bills  were  introduced  at  various  sessions  of  the 
legislature  as  part  of  an  educational  program.  Madge 
had  been  a  member  of  the  organization  for  many  years  and 
had  addressed  the  annual  meeting  in  191 1,  telling  of  the 
Federation  work  and  of  the  plans  for  the  coming  legis- 
lative session.^  Prior  to  the  meeting  in  191 2,  the  Associa- 
tion had  had  but  one  president.  Miss  Laura  Clay,  who 
with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Mary  Clay  Bennett,  had  been  largely 
instrumental  in  organizing  the  Association,  had  given 
generously  to  its  support,  and  identified  her  life  with  the 
cause.  The  term  of  office  during  the  earlier  history  of  the 
society  had  been  a  two-year  term,  and  Miss  Clay  had  been 
constantly  re-elected.  In  19 10,  however,  the  constitution 
had  been  amended,  making  the  term  a  three-year  term 
and  rendering  the  person  holding  office  ineligible  for  the 
succeeding  term.  Madge  was  elected,  then,  in  191 2,  and 
served  until  the  end  of  191 5,  when  Mrs.  T.  Jefferson  Smith, 
a  niece  of  Miss  Clay  and  daughter  of  Mrs.  Bennett,  was 
elected.  She  served  for  one  year  only,  however,  when  she 
resigned  to  take  office  on  the  board  of  the  national  associa- 
tion, and  Mrs.  John  G.  South^  served  until  the  annual 

'  Minutes,  Twenty-second  Annual  Convention,  Kentucky  Equal  Rights 
Association. 

2  The  daughter  of  Hon.  W.  O.  Bradley,  for  many  years  United  States 
Senator  from  Kentucky  and  governor  from  1896  to  1900 — the  first  governor 
to  appoint  women  on  state  boards. 


MADGE    IN    1913    AT    ASHLAND,    PLANNING    SUFFRAGE   WORK 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  201 

meeting  of  19 18,  which  was  not  held  until  the  spring  of 
191 9.  At  that  meeting  Madge  was  elected  for  another 
term,  covering  the  years  191 9,  1920,  and  1921.' 

At  the  convention  of  191 5,  when  her  first  term  as  presi- 
dent had  expired  and  when  it  had  been  determined  to  push 
at  the  1916  legislature  the  effort  to  secure  the  submission 
of  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  of  Kentucky,  a  new 
office,  that  of  campaign  chairman,  was  created;  and  she 
was  elected  to  that  office,  which  she  held  until  the  autumn 
of  1916,  when  she  was  compelled  by  ill  health  to  resign. 

In  December,  1913,  at  the  annual  convention  of  the 
National  American  Suffrage  Association  held  at  Washing- 
ton, she  was  elected  second  vice-president  of  that  organi- 
zation and  again  elected  at  the  Nashville  convention  in 
1 91 4.  Early  in  191 5,  however,  she  resigned  from  this 
board.  There  are  eight  years  then  to  be  accounted  for. 
Of  these,  during  five — 1913,  1914,  1915?  i9i9»  1920 — she 
was  the  official  head  of  the  Kentucky  association.  During 
one,  1 916,  she  was  campaign  chairman.  During  one  and 
part  of  another,  19 14-15,  she  was  both  head  of  the  Ken- 
tucky association  and  second  vice-president  of  the  national 
association.  The  review  of  these  years  should  cover  her 
Work  in  organizing  the  state  and  pushing  the  amendment 
to  the  state  constitution,  her  contribution  to  similar  work 
in  other  states,  her  advocacy  of  the  federal  amendment, 
and  the  culmination  of  the  two  in  the  ratification  of  the 
federal  amendment  by  the  Kentucky  legislature  on  the 
opening  day  of  its  session  in  1920. 

^  At  the  thirtieth  annual  meeting,  held  in  January,  1920,  on  the  days  just 
before  and  after  the  ratification  of  the  federal  amendment  by  the  Kentucky 
legislature,  it  was  voted  that  as  soon  as  the  ratification  of  the  federal  amend- 
ment was  complete  or  presidential  sufifrage  passed,  the  Kentucky  Equal  Rights 
Association  should  transmute  itself  into  a  Kentucky  League  of  Women  Voters, 
and  this  organization  was  completed  in  December,  1920. 


202         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

The  first  two  years,  19 13  and  19 14,  were  devoted 
largely  to  extending  the  organization  throughout  the 
state,  to  attempting  to  reach  all  possible  groups  through 
which  interest  might  be  spread  and  to  forming  county 
leagues.  By  the  end  of  19 13  the  number  of  members 
had  increased  from  1,779  to  4,500;  and  where  there  had 
been  11  county  leagues,  there  were  organizations  in  20 
counties  and  the  beginnings  of  organization,  either  mem- 
bers or  a  chairman,  in  45  other  counties.  During  1914 
these  numbers  increased  from  4,500  to  10,500  individual 
members  and  to  64  county  leagues  fully  pledged  to  the 
cause,  and  some  interest  aroused  in  119  out  of  the  120 
Kentucky  counties.  This  represented  an  enormous  volume 
of  organization  work.  In  19 13,  for  instance,  suffrage 
material  was  furnished  by  a  plate  page  on  suffrage  to  one 
hundred  papers  in  the  state;  a  parade  was  had  in  Louis- 
ville at  the  time  of  the  Perry  centennial  celebration;  tents 
were  opened  at  the  fairs  in  Louisville,  in  Lexington,  in 
Mason  County,  and  in  McCracken  County;  ten-dollar 
prizes  were  offered  for  essays  by  high-school  students; 
addresses  were  made  before  any  audiences  that  would 
listen,  such  as  the  teachers,  the  state  press  associations, 
state  farmers'  institutes,  the  women's  clubs.  The  school 
suffrage  law,  passed  in  191 2,  gave  a  basis  for  a  new  kind 
of  appeal  for  women  to  use  such  power  as  they  had 
obtained.  In  these  appeals  the  limitations  of  that  power 
were  pointed  out  and  further  effort  to  secure  larger  power 
was  urged. 

Madge  said  that  the  Association  was  at  that  time  in 
the  ''pink  tea"  stage  of  organization.  It  had  passed  the 
old  cruel  stage  of  bitter  protest,  ridicule,  ostracism,  and 
martyrdom,  and  it  was  now  possible  to  bring  it  on  to  the 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  203 

platform  of  vigorous  campaigning.  It  was  also  possible 
to  make  use  of  certain  other  liberal  agencies.  In  1913 
the  People's  Forum,  a  men's  organization  in  Louisville  for 
cultural  purposes,  included  Dr.  Anna  Howard  Shaw  in  its 
list  of  lecturers,  and  the  suffrage  association  now  took  its 
place  with  groups  offering  the  most  brilliant  and  popular 
speakers.  The  beautiful  and  charming  Ethel  Snowden, 
from  England,  and  the  brilliant  young  Max  Eastman,  poet 
and  radical,  were  imported.  Charlotte  Perkins  Oilman,  in 
whose  poems  about  children  Madge  delighted,  was  among 
the  lecturers  also  brought  to  Louisville  and  Lexington. 

The  volume  of  work  was  very  great  and  the  quality 
very  rare.  Madge  became,  immediately  after  her  election, 
the  official  representative,  the  attorney,  as  it  were,  for  the 
"party  defendant,"  leaping  swiftly  to  meet  the  attacks 
of  pretended  argument  or  of  ridicule  that  were  already 
becoming  somewhat  out  of  date  and  yet  survived  in  the 
columns  of  those  newspapers  representing  the  ancien 
regime.  She  believed  in  aggressive  warfare.  She  was, 
however,  always  an  honorable  combatant.  Some  journals 
were,  of  course,  beyond  argument  or  reason.  The  history 
of  the  suffrage  movement,  like  the  history  of  every  move- 
ment on  the  part  of  an  unfree  group  to  obtain  their  free- 
dom, is  full  of  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  combatants 
who  are  brave  and  honorable  according  to  the  code  of 
their  group  often  abandon  the  principles  of  courage  and 
of  honor  when  dealing  with  persons  who  are  in  their 
estimation  of  an  inferior  status.  Encounters  with  such 
journals  were  impossible  for  one  to  whom  fair  play  was 
essential.  The  Louisville  Evening  Post  seemed,  however, 
in  a  way,  worth  struggling  with.  On  January  21,1913,  the 
Evening  Post  devoted  considerable  space  to  an  argument 


204        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

attempting  to  refute  the  claims  of  the  women  that  exclu- 
sion from  political  power  was  a  factor  in  the  difference 
notoriously  characteristic  of  women's  wages  as  compared 
with  men's  wages.  On  the  twenty-seventh  the  Post  pub- 
lished a  lengthy  communication  from  her  with  its  own 
reply.  And  then  an  enemy  appeared  within  her  own  house- 
hold! One  of  the  features  of  the  Herald  is  a  column  of 
"Paragraphs" — ^humorous  and  serious  comments  on  the 
issues  of  the  day  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Enoch  Grehan,  pro- 
fessor of  journalism  at  the  University  of  Kentucky.  He, 
too,  from  time  to  time  took  his  fling  at  the  women's  de- 
mands. She  made  him  the  occasion  for  an  elaborate  set- 
ting forth  of  the  issue  as  it  then  stood,  with  the  English 
movement  in  the  throes  of  the  suffragette  disorders  and 
the  American  groups  gradually  consolidating  their  organi- 
zation on  a  truly  nation-wide  scope. 

The  visit  of  Mrs.  Snowden  to  Louisville  and  Lexing- 
ton— she  spoke  in  Lexington  April  29,  1913 — was  made 
an  occasion  at  which  the  men  of  liberal  views  and  pro- 
fessional prestige  were  given  the  opportunity  of  declaring 
their  sympathy  with  a  cause  which  was  not  only  a  just 
cause  but  becoming  highly  respectable  and  not  too  unfash- 
ionable. Hon.  John  R.  Allen,  one  of  the  two  or  three 
most  distinguished  members  of  the  Lexington  bar,  in 
introducing  Mrs.  Snowden,  related  the  women's  struggle 
to  the  American  Revolution  and  gave  to  the  leaders  of  the 
group  almost  the  dignity  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. 

In  early  May  Madge  made  a  tour  of  several  Virginia 
cities,  speaking  in  Richmond,  Staunton,  and  Lynchburg, 
dealing  especially  with  the  need  in  southern  states  of  a  revi- 
sion of  the  laws  out  of  which  grows  the  so-called'*  unwritten 


HENRY  CLAY,  AGED  43 
Portrait  by  Matthew  Harris  Jouett 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  205 

law."  Like  many  women  of  the  South,  she  resented  the 
archaic  attitude  toward  the  position  of  women  in  the 
family  group  underlying  the  whole  idea  of  the  "unwritten 
law."  The  violation  of  a  husband's  claim  to  exclusive 
control  and  enjoyment  of  his  wife's  person  led  to  a  right 
on  the  part  of  the  husband  to  avenge  the  wrong.  The 
right  was  described  in  terms  of  protection  and  affection 
and  chivalric  intent  that  concealed  the  real  relation  of  the 
woman  to  the  situation.  It  was  a  complicated  problem 
difficult  to  set  forth  and  one  she  desired  to  bring  home  to 
the  men  and  women  of  the  South.  It  was  in  connection 
with  this  problem  particularly  that  she  developed  a  very 
incisive  though  not  repelling  sarcasm.  The  newspaper 
comments  on  her  appearance  in  various  southern  com- 
munities dwell  perhaps  especially  on  this  feature  of  her 
presentation.  Her  voice,  clear,  penetrating,  but  appeal- 
ing, her  relation  to  Henry  Clay,  her  simple  and  dignified 
bearing,  her  slender  person,  these  always  strike  the  hearer 
— and  then  her  sarcasm.  '^A  good-natured  sarcasm  and 
a  clever  satire,"  comments  the  Richmond  Virginian  on 
May  4,  after  an  address  in  the  John  Marshall  High  School 
of  that  city;  "  she  knows  what  she  is  talking  about, "  said 
the  Staunton  News  of  May  11;  "she  has  the  rarest  sense 
of  humor,"  comments  the  Lynchburg  Daily  Advance  of 
May  14.  It  is  an  interesting  incident  of  this  Virginia  trip 
that  her  brother.  Judge  Henry  C.  McDowell,  of  the  Fed- 
eral Circuit  Bench,  living  in  Lynchburg,  could  not  be  per- 
suaded to  introduce  her  at  the  Lynchburg  meeting.  She 
took  great  delight  in  revealing  the  fact  in  her  opening 
remarks. 

At  the  December,  1913,  meeting  of  the  national  associa- 
tion she  became  second  vice-president,  and  the  beginning 


2o6        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

of  the  year  191 4  saw  the  legislative  campaign  on  for  the 
submission  of  an  amendment  to  the  Kentucky  constitu- 
tion. She  described  the  effort  in  her  annual  report  as 
follows: 

A  bill  drawn  by  Mr.  R.  A.  McDowell,  of  Louisville,  was 
presented  in  the  last  Legislature,  introduced  in  the  Senate  by 
the  Honorable  J.  H.  Durham,  of  Franklin,  and  in  the  House  by 
Honorable  J.  G.  Miller,  of  Paducah.  Two  amendments  to  the 
State  Constitution  previously  voted  by  the  people  and  not  properly 
advertised  by  the  Secretary  of  State  were  repassed  and  only  two 
can  be  passed  by  any  one  Legislature.  But  the  gains  were  made: 
A  special  committee  on  woman  suffrage  was  appointed  in  the 
House  (a  thing  worked  for  but  not  yet  obtained  in  the  Lower 
House  of  Congress)  to  which  the  bill  was  referred.  Both  this  com- 
mittee and  the  Senate  committee  reported  the  bill  out  and  reported 
it  favorably — a.  thing  that  has  never  happened  before  in  Kentucky. 
Of  the  thirteen  members  of  these  two  committees,  but  two  members 
voted  against  a  favorable  report  and  one  voted  to  report  only 
without  favorable  expression.  Hearings  on  suffrage  were  granted 
by  the  House  of  one  and  one-half  hours;  by  the  Senate  of  one  hour. 
The  members  of  both  Houses  were  invited  to  attend  each  of  these 
hearings  and  most  of  them  did  attend.  Headquarters  were  main- 
tained at  the  Capitol  Hotel .  throughout  the  legislative  session, 
with  one  or  more  of  our  workers  always  in  attendance.^ 

On  January  14,  1914,  she  and  Miss  Clay  were  given 
the  opportunity  of  addressing  the  entire  legislature  in 
joint  session.  The  privilege  had  never  before  been  ex- 
tended to  women  in  Kentucky,  and  the  occasion  was  a 
brilliant  social  occasion  as  well  as  a  political  innovation. 
The  socially  eligible  came  from  many  parts  of  the  state, 
and  the  resulting  publicity  for  the  cause  throughout  the 
state  was  very  great,  for  the  happenings  at  the  capital 
are  of  course  reported  to  the  local  papers  everywhere. 

'  Report  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Convention  (1914),  p.  ii. 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  207 

By  the  end  of  191 4  the  organization  had  been  spread 
over  the  state.  She  was  now  an  officer  of  the  national 
association,  and  from  the  Congressional  Committee  of  the 
national  organization,  of  which  Mrs.  Medill  McCormick 
was  at  the  time  chairman,  she  obtained  the  assistance  of 
an  organizer  for  a  part  of  a  year.  The  state  association's 
treasury  paid  five  other  organizers  who  were  out  for  much 
shorter  periods.  It  proved  possible  to  present  the  cause 
at  teachers'  institutes  in  ninety-four  counties  and  at  fifty 
citizens'  meetings.  A  great  quantity  of  literature  was 
distributed:  over  ten  thousand  leaflets  in  connection  with 
school-suffrage  agitation  were  sent  out;  four-month  sub- 
scriptions to  t\ie^Women^s  Journal  were  supplied  to  all  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature,  as  well  as  to  forty-three  newspaper 
editors  who  promised  to  clip  and  to  publish,  and  to  fifty- 
seven  chairmen  of  local  leagues;  sample  literature  was 
presented  to  every  local  league.  The  Chautauqua  was 
brought  into  service.  Madge  made  fourteen  suffrage 
addresses  in  the  state  besides  making  thirty-two  outside 
the  state.  The  end  of  March  brought  a  meeting  of  the 
national  board  in  New  York.  May  brought  the  trip  to 
Memphis  for  the  National  Conference  of  Social  Work,  at 
which  the  addresses  on  the  work  of  Lincoln  School  and  on 
the  social  hygiene  problem  already  quoted  were  delivered. 
Early  June  meant  a  "whirlwind  campaign"  of  a  week  or 
more  in  southwestern  Kentucky.  On  the  sixth  of  June, 
Cincinnati;  on  the  seventh,  Louisville;  the  eighth, 
Owensboro;  the  ninth,  Henderson;  then  Hopkinsville. 
Elliston,  Glasgow,  and  Bowling  Green;  back  to  Lexington 
for  an  address;  then  to  Chicago  for  the  national  board  on 
the  twelfth  and  an  address  at  the  banquet  held  at  that 
time.     Saturday,  June  27,  she  was  one  of  the  national 


2o8        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

officers  to  present  a  petition  to  Congress.  On  August  25, 
two  addresses  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  as  Ohio  was  a  "cam- 
paign state,''  September  5-13,  a  week  in  Missouri — 
St.  Louis,  JopHn  and  Carthage,  Cape  Girardeau,  West 
Plains — and  a  week  in  Nebraska,  since  Missouri  and 
Nebraska  were  also  "campaign  states"  that  year.  On 
this  trip  she  spoke  frequently  in  the  open  air  at  street 
meetings  and  to  circus  crowds. 

On  October  22  in  the  afternoon  she  debated  with  Miss 
Price,  the  anti-suffrage  representative,  before  the  Jewish 
Council  of  Women  in  Cincinnati,  and  in  the  evening  spoke 
at  a  suffrage  meeting.  The  annual  meeting  of  the  state 
association  on  November  5-7  wound  up  a  year  that  would 
have  seemed  a  strenuous  year  had  suffrage  been  her  only 
interest.  To  realize  what  effort  was  put  forth,  one  may 
recall  that  she  was  at  this  time  serving  on  the  State  Tuber- 
culosis Commission,  trying  to  get  a  Blue  Grass  sana- 
torium, and  developing  the  work  of  Lincoln  School. 

During  these  two  years,  19 13  and  19 14,  an  extensive 
organization  had  been  developed.  Suffrage  was  thor- 
oughly respectable  and  on  the  whole  not  unfashionable. 
In  191 5,  however,  it  was  reahzed  that  the  organization 
was  neither  very  thorough  nor  very  radical,  and  the 
necessity  of  deepening  and  strengthening  the  work  was 
clearly  recognized.  But  the  world- war  was  on;  and, 
while  the  United  States  did  not  go  in  for  two  years  more, 
it  was  more  difficult  than  before  to  get  money  and  to 
arouse  interest  in  the  cause.  During  this  year,  however, 
all  the  old  channels  of  publicity  were  still  utilized,  and  new 
ones  were  sought.  The  teachers'  institutes,  the  editors 
of  the  state,  and  the  women's  clubs  were  still  stimulated. 
Every  minister  in  the  state,  "Roman  Catholic,  Jewish, 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  209 

Unitarian,  and  every  one  representing  any  Protestant 
denomination/'  received  a  letter  asking  that  he  use  his 
moral  influence  and  preach  at  least  one  sermon  for  the 
cause.  The  plea  was  based  on  the  possible  effect  of  the 
woman's  vote  on  law  enforcement  and  on  moral  standards 
in  public  life. 

The  year  1 914- 15  witnessed  too  the  same  great 
volume  of  traveling  and  speaking  as  the  preceding  years. 
December  saw  her  starting  on  a  tour  of  Texas — Houston, 
Galveston,  Austin,  Dallas — after  an  address  on  the  way, 
December  2,  in  New  Orleans;  then  crossing  back  by  way 
of  Tuscaloosa,  Florida,  to  Alabama— Montgomery,  Birm- 
ingham— and  into  Georgia — Savannah  and  Augusta — and 
back  for  Christmas  at  home,  for  "even  a  suffragist  may 
be  at  home  sometimes,"  she  wrote.  She  greatly  longed 
to  further  the  cause  in  the  South,  and  after  a  winter  in 
which  there  were  two  trips  to  New  York  and  a  three  weeks' 
vacation  with  her  husband  in  Bermuda,  she  was  again 
for  two  weeks  at  the  problem  of  the  southern  community, 
in  South  Carolina  and  then  in  North  Carolina.  The 
following  extract  from  a  letter  written  afterward,  April  12, 
191 5,  to  Miss  Frost,  of  Charleston,  will  give  some  idea  of 
the  character  of  these  journeys  on  which  she  went  so  fre- 
quently, so  gaily,  and  with  such  devotion: 

There  wasn't  much  rest  for  the  wicked  either  on  the  South  Caro- 
lina or  my  North  Carolina  tour.  I  decided  to  put  in  the  Friday  and 
Saturday  nights  after  all,  but  though  Mrs.  Lynch  told  me  definitely 
on  Tuesday  I  was  to  go  to  Spartansburg  Saturday,  it  turned  out  that 
my  first  date  was  Monday,  being  10 :  30,  when  I  spoke  to  the  girls  at 
Coker  College.  I  took  a  train,  however,  that  afternoon  for  Char- 
lotte, N.C.,  that  the  station  man  told  me  got  in  at  11:00,  but  I 
found  when  I  got  on  the  train  was  not  due  till  12:10  and  which 
actually  arrived  at  1:00.    I  got  in  a  good  rest  Simday  morning 


2IO        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

however,  before  I  got  in  touch  with  Federation  and  Lexington 
friends  who  kept  me  busy  thereafter.  I  left  Charlotte  at  six  o'clock 
Tuesday,  but  due  to  a  wreck  ahead  that  we  had  to  wait  on  and 
walk  around,  I  missed  my  connection  for  the  next  one  night  stand 
and  didn't  get  there  until  9 :  30  at  night.  When  I  telephoned  them, 
however,  that  I  couldn't  get  there,  they  asked  me  to  speak  when 
I  did  arrive  and  I  said  I  would  if  there  was  any  audience,  and  we 
actually  began  the  meeting  at  a  quarter  of  ten. 

Mrs.  Henderson  was  with  me  for  the  last  two  or  three  days, 
which  made  it  very  nice,  though  six  o'clock  trains  were  rather  hard 
on  her.  We  were  scheduled  for  a  mid-day  meeting  at  Raleigh^ 
that  was  good  Friday,  and  I  was  to  speak  that  night  at  Chapel 
Hill.  The  Raleigh  newspaper  came  out  with  an  article  announcing 
that  they  would  meet  me  at  the  train  with  a  brass  band  and 
parade  through  the  streets.  It  was  an  April  Fool  joke,  but  it  made 
the  suffragists  tear  their  hair.  They  are  trying  to  get  suffrage 
there  in  the  most  lady-like  manner,  without  having  anybody 
find  out  they  want  it.  They  just  had  me  in  the  middle  of  the 
day  like  a  Lenten  Service.  As  I  spoke  under  the  portrait  of  my 
great-grandfather,  and  as  he  had  dedicated  the  capitol  in  the 
forties,  that  lent  a  little  respectabiUty  to  me  and  suffrage.  I 
think  it  also  comforted  them  when  the  Bishop  of  North  Caro- 
lina called,  because  he  is  one  of  my  mother's  Hart  relatives— 
I  found  them  all  through  that  part  of  North  Carolina.  I  took 
pains  to  tell  him  that  the  Bishop  of  South  Carolina  and  his  wife 
had  both  come  to  the  meeting  and  that  they  were  both  suffragists. 

The  first  week  in  June  found  her  in  Arkansas,  from  the 
fourteenth  to  the  twenty-first  she  was  in  West  Virginia, 
and  then  the  summer's  efforts  again  at  Chautauquas  and 
teachers'  institutes.  The  State  Republican  Convention 
was  held  in  July  in  Lexington,  and  suffrage  planks  had 
to  be  sought  and  work  developed  toward  the  legislative 
campaign  of  the  coming  winter. 

She  was  not  always  patient.  Sometimes  she  was 
tempted  to  express  exasperation.     An  incidental  corre- 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  211 

spondence  with  the  governor — ^Governor  McCreary — 
shows  a  note  of  such  exasperation  as  well  as  it  illustrates 
the  swiftness  with  which  she  takes  advantage  of  every 
opening  to  advance  or  to  urge  her  cause : 

The  morning  paper  states  that  you  have  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  interest  the  women  of  this  State  in  the  program  of  "Pre- 
paredness" outlined  by  President  Wilson.  The  committee  named 
consists  of  some  eighty-five  Kentucky  women. 

Does  it  strike  you  as  consistent  that  you  should  expect  the 
women  of  Kentucky  to  have  any  interest  in  or  any  concern  for 
the  preparedness  of  their  country,  while  you  deny  them  a  voice 
in  its  government  ?  If  there  are  any  functions  of  government  that 
are  purely  masculine  they  must  surely  be  those  of  offense  and 
defense.  The  most  ancient  and  honorable  argument  of  the  antis 
is  that  women  can  not  fight  and  therefore  should  not  vote.  And 
surely  no  man  who  feels  that  women  should  have  no  voice  in 
deciding  whether  war  is  to  be  made  or  not,  can  feel  that  any  part 
of  the  burden  of  war  or  the  preparedness  therefor  should  be  thrown 
upon  women — not  even  the  burden  of  forming  public  opinion  to 
that  end.    What  have  women  to  do  with  public  opinion  anyhow  ? 

We  suffragists  of  course  know  that  it  is  impossible  for  men, 
however  much  they  would,  to  prevent  the  burden  of  war  from 
falling  upon  women,  or  the  burden  of  preparedness  from  falling 
on  the  whole  people  in  taxation,  women  as  well  as  men.  We  know 
that  every  State  and  every  country  in  time  of  war  as  in  time  of 
peace  must  and  should  have  the  help  of  its  women.  But  for  men 
who  deny  women  the  vote,  even  to  take  one  eye  out  of  the  sand 
on  this  question  is  dangerous. 

Do  you  remember  that  the  last  Legislature,  a  Democratic 
Legislature,  defeated  the  bill  for  submission  of  woman  suffrage 
to  the  voters  ?  And  that  the  same  Legislature  failed  to  appropriate 
for  a  Kentucky  building  at  the  Panama  Exposition  ?  Thereafter 
you  appointed  a  commission  to  try  to  raise  the  funds  for  such 
a  building  by  private  subscription,  and  this  commission  made  a 
special  and  wide-spread  appeal  to  the  women  of  the  State  to  come 
to  the  rescue  and  see  that  the  dignity  of  Kentucky  was  upheld. 


212        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

You  appointed  on  the  commission  men  who  had  opposed  the 
woman  suffrage  bill  in  the  Legislature,  and  one  man,  in  particular, 
whom  the  women  all  remembered  not  only  for  the  fact  that  he 
had  opposed  full  suffrage  when  offered  and  school  suffrage  for 
women  through  three  previous  sessions,  but  especially  for  the 
inexcusable  manner  in  which  he  had  opposed  these  measures. 

The  women  did  not  respond  to  the  appeal  for  funds.  Kentucky 
went  without  a  building  at  the  Exposition.  She  was  one  of  a  few 
States  unrepresented  and  unadvertised,  as  I  have  heard  Kentucky 
visitors  relate  with  mortification.  Kentucky  women  are  not 
idiots — even  though  they  are  closely  related  to  Kentucky  men. 
You  can't  ignore  them  and  treat  them  as  if  the^  were  kindergarten 
children,  and  when  work  is  needed  expect  them  to  do  a  man's 
share — or  a  woman's,  as  you  please  to  state  it;  it  has  amounted 
to  about  the  same  thing  since  the  world  began,  only  sometimes 
the  woman's  share  has  been  and  still  is  the  heavier. 

Wouldn't  it  be  better  for  the  Democrats  of  Kentucky  to  wake 
up  to  the  fact  that  women  are  one-half  the  people  of  Kentucky, 
that  neither  Kentucky  nor  the  Nation  can  get  along  without 
our  help,  and  hereafter  to  ask  it  on  a  self-respecting  basis  ?  To 
take  the  position  of  the  anti-suffragist  that  women  do  not  need 
to  protect  themselves  because  men  perfectly  protect  them,  and 
then  at  the  first  rumor  of  war  to  call  on  them  to  do  their  part  in 
the  plans  for  defense,  is  not  really  self-respecting.  Can't  you 
assure  me  that  you  and  the  Democrats  whom  you  represent  will 
give  proof  at  the  next  Legislature  that  you  are  no  longer  in  so 
inconsistent  a  position  ? ' 

In  191 5,  New  York,  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  and 
Pennsylvania  were  ''campaign  states,"  that  is,  were  sub- 
mitting the  question  to  the  voters  of  the  state,  and  the 
Kentucky  association  voted  to  contribute  $150  to  the 
work  in  those  states.  She  had  spoken  in  eight  Kentucky 
towns,  had  given  a  week  each  to  Pennsylvania  and  West 
Virginia,  and  had  planned  to  devote  a  considerable  period 
to  the  campaigns  especially  in  Massachusetts  and  New 

^Louisville  Herald,  November  14,  1915. 


MADGE.  IN  CHICAGO,  JUNE,  1914 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  213 

Jersey.  In  September,  however,  illness  again  fell  upon 
her,  and  she  had  to  change  her  plans  and  send  substitutes 
into  those  states. 

The  annual  meeting  of  191 5  was  a  brilliant  meeting. 
Mme  Schwimmer  came  again — it  was  before  the  Ford 
Peace  Ship — and  Mrs.  Snowden,  too.  The  mayor,  J.  E. 
Cassidy,  welcomed  the  gathering.  Sessions  were  held  in 
the  "Opera  House"  and  in  the  "Ball  Room"  of  the 
Phoenix  Hotel,  and  plans  were  laid  for  the  legislative 
campaign  that  was  later  undertaken.  But  she  was  not 
present.  Having  made  the  plans,  she  had  to  remain 
away  in  the  search  for  renewed  strength. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  in  her  annual  report  in  1914 
she  pleaded  guilty  to  a  divided  interest,  in  that  the 
national  organization,  the  board  meetings,  and  speeches 
outside  the  state  had  taken  time  that  otherwise  might 
have  gone  into  state  work.  That  national  relationship 
had,  of  course,  meant  not  only  attending  meetings  but  also 
taking  a  position  with  reference  to  various  issues. 

In  the  work  of  the  national  association  circumstances 
had  developed  leading  to  the  withdrawal  of  an  aggressively 
militant  group  led  by  Miss  Alice  Paul,  who  thought  it  well 
to  transfer  to  the  United  States  campaign  the  militant 
methods  pursued  in  England  by  Mrs.  Pankhurst  and  her 
followers.  Madge  had  always  been  a  warm  admirer  of 
Mrs.  Pankhurst,  who  had  spoken  in  Kentucky  on  her 
invitation,  but  had  always  taken  the  position  that  the 
conduct  of  the  men  of  the  United  States  had  not  been  such 
as  to  render  necessary  a  resort  to  the  methods  of  the 
English  militants.  She  hoped  never  to  have  to  resort  to 
,those  methods.  There  is,  however,  no  reason  to  think 
that  she  would  not  have  done  so  had  she  thought  the 


214        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

denial  of  the  women's  claim  sufficiently  persistent  and 
aggravated  to  leave  to  the  women  no  other  means  of  a 
sufficiently  hopeful  character.  Moreover,  she  cared  a 
great  deal  for  having  groups  free  to  try  each  its  own 
method;  she  could  not  bear  a  house  divided  against  itself, 
and  so,  while  on  the  board,  she  did  all  in  her  power  to 
prevent  the  break  between  the  two  groups. 

There  were'  other  questions  of  poHcy  that  divided 
the  two  groups  besides  the  question  of  so-called  ''mili- 
tant tactics."  The  "National"  believed  in  the  federal 
amendment,  but  believed  in  pushing  the  work  both  in 
Washington  for  the  federal  amendment  and  in  the  states 
for  amendments  to  the  various-  state  constitutions. 
There  were,  later,  unexpected  divisions  in  the  National 
as  to  whether  any  other  than  the  States'  Rights  method 
could  be  used,  and  there  were  many  grades  of  opinion 
as  to  the  relative  importance  of  work  at  Washington 
and  in  the  states.  The  "Union,"  organized  by  Miss 
Paul,  devoted  itself  at  first  pretty  exclusively  to  the 
work  in  Washington  and  would  ask  only  for  the  so-called 
Anthony  amendment. 

To  Madge,  the  relation  of  work  in  the  states  to  work 
at  the  national  Capitol  was  a  question  of  ways  and  means. 
She  never  forgot  that  both  congressmen  and  legislators 
had  constituents  and  that  federal  amendments  became 
effective  only  after  ratification  by  the  requisite  number  of 
legislatures.  She  was  not  sure  that  only  through  the 
federal  amendment  would  all  the  women  of  the  United 
States  become  poHtically  free,  but  she  was  perfectly  willing 
to  obtain  the  vote  by  that  method — to  appear  before  con- 
gressional committees  as  she  appeared,  for  example,  on. 
December  3,  191 3,  before  the  House  of  Representatives 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  215 

Committee  on  Rules'  asking  that  a  special  committee  be 
created  on  woman's  suffrage,  or  to  go  with  delegations  to 
plead  with  President  Wilson  in  the  days  before  he  saw 
the  light. 

On  April  29, 1914,  for  example,  she  wrote  to  Miss  Kate 
Gordon,  of  New  Orleans,  that  she  could  not  become  a  mem- 
ber of  any  group  seeking  suffrage  ''only  by  the  States' 
Rights  method."  ''I  believe  firmly,"  she  wrote,  "in 
pressing  Southern  Democrats  both  at  home  and  at  Wash- 
ington. I  still  consider  that  the  Washington  end  is  more 
for  purposes  of  agitation  than  with  the  hope  of  results; 
but  I  believe  that  if  some  of  us  press  hard  enough  at 
Washington,  there  is  much  more  hope  of  results  at  home. " 

In  19 19,  when  the  federal  amendment  had  finally 
been  passed  and  the  issue  had  been  raised  again  by  Miss 
Clay's  withdrawing  from  the  Fayette  Equal  Rights  Asso- 
ciation because  that  organization  indorsed  the  effort  for 
ratification,  she  held  a  public  debate  with  Miss  Clay,  and 
later,  in  preparation  for  the  ratification,  wrote: 

Speedy  ratification  of  the  Federal  amendment  for  Woman 
Suffrage  by  the  Kentucky  Legislature  is  imminent.  The  States' 
Rights  question  has  been  raised  in  Kentucky.  A  very  little  reflec- 
tion will  show  that  the  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
by  three-fourths  of  the  states  violates  no  right  of  any  state.  In 
fact,  the  method  of  amendment  is  a  distinct  acknowledgment  of 
the  principle  of  States'  Rights,  since  the  amendment  is  referred 
for  ratification  to  the  representatives  of  the  states,  the  legis- 
latures. 

Senator  Pollock  of  South  CaroHna,  speaking  in  the  Senate  on 
the  suffrage  ratification  resolution,  quoted  Senator  John  C.  Cal- 
houn of  South  Carolina,  possibly  the  greatest  exponent  of  the 
doctrine  of  States'  Rights  in  America,  to  the  effect  that  the  method 

*  Sixty-third  Congress,  Second  Session,  H.  R.  Doc.  7^4,  p.  19. 


2i6        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

prescribed  for  amending  the  Federal  Constitution  by  ratifications 
of  three-fourths  of  the  states  was  absolutely  consistent  with 
the  sovereignty  of  the  states.  John  Madison,  who  framed  the 
article  on  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  said  that  "such  coalition 
of  three-fourths  of  the  states  would  be  impossible  to  take  place 
on  any  measure  that  was  not  for  the  general  good. "  The  framers 
of  our  Constitution  had  lived  through  a  most  difficult  period 
under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  when  unanimous  consent 
of  the  thirteen  colonies  was  necessary  even  to  validate  tax  measures 
of  the  general  government.  Out  of  their  bitter  experience  they 
concluded  that  the  Constitution  itself  should  become  effective 
when  accepted  by  nine  of  the  thirteen  colonies — less  than  three- 
fourths.  Their  great  concern  was  to  get  something  practicable 
and  workable,  and  this  is  shown  in  the  article  on  amendment. 

As  Senator  Pollock  of  South  Carolina  also  pointed  out  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  with  so  considerable  a  body  of  persons  desir- 
ing this  Federal  amendment,  it  would  have  been  a  violation  of 
the  States  Rights  principle  not  to  allow  the  states  to  pass  upon  it. 

The  so-called  ''crime  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment"  con- 
sisted in  forcing  ratification  by  blood  and  iron  through  the  carpet- 
bag legislatures  of  unwilHng  southern  states.  The  states  are  not 
only  willingly  but  gladly  ratif)dng  the  present  amendment.  Since 
it  passed  the  United  States  Senate  in  June,  already  twenty-two 
states  have  ratified  it,  fourteen  of  them  at  sessions  of  their  legisla- 
tures called  for  the  purpose. 

Kentucky  men  have  had  127  years  in  which  to  grant  suffrage 
by  the  S  ta tes'  Rights  method.  The  man  who  at  the  present  moment 
talks  of  deferring  suffrage  till  it  may  be  given  by  the  States'  Rights 
route  will  usually  be  found  to  be  an  anti-suffragist  at  heart,  who 
instinctively  catches  at  any  straw  that  promises  further  delay  of 
the  inevitable. 

It  is  contended  that  a  state  that  votes  against  ratification  of  the 
Federal  amendment  has  its  right  as  a  state  violated  if  the  amend- 
ment is  ratified  in  spite  of  its  vote.  Its  right  as  a  state  is  no  more 
violated  than  is  that  of  an  individual  who  votes  for  a  Republican 
president  when  the  result  of  the  election  shows  a  Democratic 
president  elected.    When  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  is 


DESHA  BRECKINRIDGE,  1920 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  217 

legally  ratified  by  the  legislatures  of  three-fourths  of  the  states, 
that  amendment  becomes,  as  much  as  any  original  section  of  the 
Constitution,  the  "supreme  law  of  the  land." 

The  enforcing  clause  to  which  objection  has  been  made  of  the 
Nineteenth  Amendment  is  not  only  not  dangerous,  it  is  entirely 
innocuous  and  really  superfluous,  since  the  second  article  of  the 
Constitution  itself  confers  upon  the  Congress  all  the  powers  which 
this  clause  can  confer. 

At  present  it  is  impossible  for  a  state  desiring  to  do  so  to  fully 
protect  its  women  in  their  right  of  citizenship.  A  woman  from  the 
State  of  Montana,  for  instance,  albeit  she  had  sat  as  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  if  today  she  should 
remove  her  residence  to  the  State  of  Kentucky,  would  lose  her 
voting  rights. 

After  the  passage  of  the  Nineteenth  Amendment  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States  may  not  on  account  of  sex  be  deprived  of  her 
citizenship  even  by  the  most  backward  state  of  the  Union. ^ 

The  question  of  "states'  rights"  in  the  decade  1910-20, 
as  in  1 86 1,  was  really  a  question  of  the  negro,  and  on  this 
subject  she  was  clear,  in  relation  to  the  ballot,  as  she  had 
been  in  the  matter  of  school  opportunities  in  Irishtown. 
She  wrote^  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  as  to  how  the  negro 
women  had  used  their  school  suffrage : 

.  I  think  it  is  true  that  politics  have  effectually  been  taken 
out  of  our  colored  schools.  Yes,  it  is  true  that  we  work  with  the 
colored  women 

Many  of  the  colored  women  are  very  much  interested  in  the 
welfare  of  the  public  schools  and  are  quite  eager  to  use  their 
privilege. 

I  have  followed  this  policy  with  regard  to  them.  I  didn't 
call  on  them  for  help  and  made  no  effort  to  bring  them  in  while 
we  were  fighting  for  school  sujQfrage,  in.  fact  I  discouraged  such 
efforts,  because  I  believed  one  war  was  enough  at  a  time.     I  knew 

*  Lexington  Herald,  January  4,  1920. 

*  To  Mrs.  John  D.  Hammond,  of  Augusta,  Georgia,  May  28,  1915. 


2i8        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

the  colored  people  would  complicate  things  and  also  if  we  got  the 
ballot  we  would  get  it  for  them  as  well  as  for  ourselves.  As  soon 
as  we  had  gotten  it  in  any  one  town,  we  at  once  took  them  in  on 
the  game  and  are  attempting  to  work  with  them  and  to  lead  them 
wisely  as  far  as  we  are  able. 

My  idea  is  to  pursue  the  same  policy  with  regard  to  the  full 
suffrage.  Personally,  I  have  respect  for  colored  women  and  believe 
that  they  can  be  made  excellent  citizens. 

We  probably  shall  not  put  an  educational  qualification  in 
our  bill  asking  the  full  suffrage.  I  believe  that  the  best  way  to  get 
the  educational  qualification  is  by  securing  in  all  elections  a  ballot 
without  party  emblem,  so  that  the  voter  must  be  able  to  read  and 
write  in  order  to  stamp  opposite  the  name  of  the  candidate  he 
wishes  to  vote  for. 

When  you  put  in  people  able  to  read  and  write  it  is  apt  to 
furnish  a  tool  which  a  dishonest  election  officer  may  use  corruptly. 

A  second  question  of  policy  dividing  the  Union  from 
the  National,  was  the  subject  of  adopting  not  only  Mrs. 
Pankhurst's  militant  tactics  in  the  form  of  pickets,  going 
to  jail,  etc.,  but  likewise,  Mrs.  Pankhurst's  practice  of 
holding  the  party  responsible  for  the  vote  of  the  individ- 
ual member  of  Congress.  On  this  she  was  questioned  by 
her  friend,  an  old-time  supporter  of  the  cause  of  suffrage, 
Hon.  Jouett  Shouse,  later  assistant  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  then  in  the  Kansas  Senate.  The  following  cor- 
respondence shows  her  complete  agreement  with  the 
national  association  on  this  issue.  He  wrote  to  her  Sep- 
tember 20,  1914: 

A  few  days  ago  a  dispatch  appeared  in  the  Kansas  City  papers 
stating  that  a  committee  representing  the  National  Equal  Suffrage 
Association  would  come  to  Kansas  immediately  and  open  head- 
quarters at  Topeka,  and  the  object  of  the  coming  of  this  com- 
mittee, as  outUned  by  the  newspapers,  was  to  oppose  the  election 
of  Democrats  in  Kansas  to  Congress  on  account  of  the  attitude 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  219 

of  certain  members  of  the  Democratic  party  in  opposing  the 
proposed  National  Suffrage  Amendment. 

When  I  saw  this  in  the  papers  I  felt  sure  that  there  was  some 
mistake.  I  do  not  question  the  right  of  this  committee  to  oppose 
the  election  of  any  candidate  for  Congress  who  will  not  pledge 
himself  to  support  the  National  Suffrage  Amendment:  I  do 
question  the  right  and  propriety  of  the  committee  to  oppose  all 
Democrats  who  may  be  candidates  regardless  of  their  position 
on  the  suffrage  question  merely  because  some  Democrats  in 
Congress  are  fighting  the  measure  pending  there.  I  want  the 
facts  and  I  shall  be  glad  if  you  would  investigate  and  would 
let  me  know  what  the  real  object  of  the  committee  is. 

Those  who  have  at  heart  the  welfare  and  advancement  of  the 
cause  of  equal  suffrage  should  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the 
Suffrage  Amendment  was  adopted  in  Kansas  in  an  overwhelming 
Democratic  year,  the  first  year  that  a  Democratic  majority  was 
ever  elected  in  both  branches  of  the  Kansas  legislature;  nor  should 
it  be  forgotten  that  certain  men,  now  candidates,  helped  publicly 
to  make  the  fight  for  suffrage  at  that  time.  Of  course  I  realize 
that  you  know  my  position  on  the  question.  You  know  I  spoke 
for  suffrage  two  years  ago  when  it  was  not  nearly  so  popular  as 
it  is  now.  I  do  not  fear  for  myself  with  reference  to  the  coming 
of  this  committee  with  its  purported  object,  as  set  forth  by  the 
newspapers;  I  do  fear  for  the  cause  of  suffrage  if  any  general 
boycott  is  attempted  against  a  party,  many  of  whose  members 
have  been  and  are  active  supporters  of  the  suffrage  cause. 

In  the  hope  that  through  you  I  may  learn  the  truth  of  this 
matter 

She  wrote  in  reply : 

In  reply  to  your  letter  of  September  20th,  asking  information 
as  to  a  dispatch  in  the  Kansas  City  papers  stating  that  a  committee 
of  the  National  Equal  Suffrage  Association  would  open  head- 
quarters at  Topeka  and  oppose  the  election  of  Democrats  in 
Kansas  to  Congress,  the  dispatch  is  undoubtedly  wrong  as  to  its 
being  a*  committee  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  to 
which  most  of  us  suffragists  belong.     The  policy  of  the  N.W.S.A. 


220        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

is,  as  it  always,  has  been,  non-partisan.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  pohcy  of  the  Congressional  Union,  headed  by  Miss  Alice 
Paul,  is  to  hold  the  party  in  power  responsible  for  the  failure  to 
pass  suffrage  legislation  and  to  attack  the  representatives  of  that 
party  in  the  equal  suffrage  states.  I  presume,  therefore,  that  if 
such  a  committee  is  being  sent  to  Topeka  it  is  undoubtedly  sent 
by  the  Congressional  Union.  It  is  certainly  not  sent  by  our  Con- 
gressional Committee  of  the  N.W.S.A. 

Miss  Paul  was  at  one  time  chairman  of  the  Congressional 
Committee  of  the  N.W.S.A.,  but  the  Board,  of  which  I  became  a 
member  last  December,  felt  it  very  necessary  very  soon  after  to 
sever  the  connection.  We  were  very  sorry  for  a  split  in  the  ranks 
and  did  everything  we  could  to  bring  Miss  Paul  and  her  followers 
to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  the  National  Board  could  not 
assume  responsibiHty  for  the  things  which  it  did  not  approve 
and  that  if  she  expected  to  be  a  committee  of  the  N.W.S.A.  she 
must  submit  policies  to  our  supervision.  The  upshot  of  the  whole 
thing  was  that  Miss  Paul,  who  is  an  insurgent  of  the  mihtant 
type,  split  off  from  the  national  organization  and  now  heads 
another  society  called  the  Congressional  Union,  with  headquarters 
at  Washington.  We  have  a  Congressional  Committee  of  which 
Mrs.  Medill  McCormick  is  chairman  and  of  which  I  am  one  of 
the  menibers.  It  distinctly  does  not  believe  in  the  policy  of 
defeating  Democrats,  regardless  of  suffrage  proclivities  or  other 
quahties,  believes  that  in  fact  to  be  a  bad  mistake.  The  diffi- 
culty in  the  situation  is  that  it  is  practically  impossible  for 
the  public  to  become  aware  of  the  facts  of  the  split  and  the 
difference  in  the  policy  of  the  two  organizations.  We  have 
even  -refused  to  take  the  Congressional  Union  into  the  National 
Woman  Suffrage  Association  or  Federation  of  Suffrage  Clubs, 
because  we  consider  its  poUcy  antagonistic  to  that  of  the 
N.W.S.A. 

A  third  issue  was  with  reference  to  a  device  suggested 
by  Mrs.  Medill  McCormick  and  adopted  by  the  National 
with  reference  to  proposing  another  amendment  as  -a  sub- 
stitute for  the  Anthony  amendment  when  the  record  of 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  221 

the  members  of  Congress  showed  that,  for  the  time,  urging 
the  Anthony  amendment  was  a  futile  waste  of  strength 
for  other  than  propaganda  purposes. 

It  is  not  possible,  yet,  and  will  not  be  possible  until  at 
a  later  date  the  records  of  the  various  organizations  and 
the  correspondence  incident  to  these  decisions  are  made 
pubHc,  to  give  a  complete  account  of  these  years  of 
struggle.  Such  a  statement  of  facts  as  is  set  forth  here 
is  recognized  as  a  partial  statement;  but  so  far  as  it  is 
possible,  the  statement  represents  her  attempt  at  dis- 
passionate and  honest  effort  so  to  campaign  for  suffrage 
as  both  to  forward  the  cause  politically  and  to  secure  the 
largest  amount  of  political  and  civic  education.  The 
amendment  proposed  by  the  Congressional  Committee 
drafted  by  Senator  Shafroth,  or,  at  least  introduced  by 
him,  proposed  that  the  states  be  compelled  to  submit  to 
the  voters  the  question  of  the  enfranchisement  of  women 
on  petition  of  5  per  cent  of  its  voters. 

It  was  probably  never  thought  of  as  other  than  a  device 
for  filling  in  the  gap  from  the  point  of  view  of  congres- 
sional activity  until  the  effect  of  the  various  state  cam- 
paigns could  make  itself  felt  on  the  views  of  Congress. 
She  was  therefore  inclined  to  go  with  Mrs.  McCormick's 
Congressional  Committee  in  its  work  for  the  Shafroth 
amendment — though  she  was  never  convinced  either  of 
its  intrinsic  value  nor  of  the  wisdom  of  appearing  to  lobby 
actively  for  the  content  of  the  amendment. 

But  the  situation  was  simplified  for  her  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  national  association  which  occurred  at 
Nashville  just  after  the  state  annual  meeting  in  191 4, 
because  she  came  at  this  time  to  the  conclusion  that  she 
could  hot  continue  to  serve  on  the  board  of  the  national 


22  2        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

association.  She  was  re-elected  at  that  meeting,  and  her 
resignation  from  the  board  was  made  pubHc  only  the 
following  May  and  then  from  the  national  headquarters 
and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  the  organization  no 
embarrassment,  and  for  the  future  she  did  her  work  as 
from  the  state  organization. 

Her  relation  to  the  State"  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 
remained  meanwhile  very  close.     A  part  of  the  work  in 

191 5  was  devoted  to  obtaining  recognition  in  the  plat- 
forms of.  the  various  parties,  and  this  task  was  under- 
taken chiefly  by  the  Federation,  the  Kentucky  Equal 
Rights  Association  assisting.  The  state  Democratic  Con- 
vention refused  to  indorse,  but  the  Republican  and  the 
minor  parties,  the  Progressive,  Prohibition,  and  Socialists, 
all  indorsed.     This  meant  the  Republican  support  in  the 

1 91 6  legislature. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  while  she  could  not  be 
re-elected  president  of  the  Kentucky  association,  she  was 
elected  to  the  newly  created  office  of  campaign  chairman 
in  view  of  a  prospective  legislative  effort. 

That  effort  to  secure  the  legislative  action  necessary 
for  the  submission  of  an  amendment  to  a  vote  of  the 
people  was  not  successful.  She  gives  a  full  account  of  the 
struggle  in  her  next  report  to  the  state  association,  which 
will  be  quoted  below.  But  some  material  supplementary 
to  her  report  must  be  given  here,  for  it  was  a  very 
brilliant  effort,  defeated  only  by  the  resort  on  the  part 
of  the  state  administration  to  most  unworthy  methods 
of  combat.  After  a  favorable  vote  on  the  women's  bill 
had  been  obtained  in  the  Senate,  the  governor,  fearing 
favorable  action  in  the  House,  appealed  for  help  to  the 
Kentucky  delegation  in  Washington,  and  that  delega- 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  223 

tion  responded  in  a  prompt  and  effective  manner.  On 
March  11,  there  appeared  in  the  Louisville  papers  the 
following  item: 

Frankfort,  Ky.,  March  11,  19 16 

To  the  Louisville  Times  (Special) :  Governor  Stanley  received 
the  following  telegram  this  morning  signed  by  Senator  James  and 
Congressman  Can  trill  saying:  **At  a  meeting  in  Senator  James' 
office  this  afternoon,  at  which  all  of  the  Kentucky  Democratic 
members  of  the  House  but  one  were  present,  the  opinion  was 
expressed  that  it  was  not  within  the  province  of  the  members  of 
Congress  to  offer  advice  to  the  Legislature,  but  each  man  present 
expressed  himself  as  strongly  opposed  to.  the  woman  suffrage 
amendment  and  hoped  that  it  would  be  defeated,  in  accordance 
with  the  action  of  the  last  Democratic  State  Convention.  The 
one  absent  member  of  the  House  delegation  could  not  be  located 
in  time  for  the  conference." 

This  statement  by  a  senator  and  a  member  of  the  lower 
house  of  Congress  was  shown  afterward  to  be  false  in 
several  points.  In  the  first  place,  not  all  the  Democratic 
members  in  the  Kentucky  delegation  were  present  at  the 
meeting  referred  to,  as  those  favoring  the  women's  measure 
were  not  notified  of  it;  in  the  second  place,  there  had  been 
no  action  by  the  Democratic  State  Convention  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  sending  of  the  telegram  was  the  merest  political 
trick,  but  it  accomplished  the  purpose  of  the  senders. 
This  was  brought  out  by  correspondence  between  Madge 
and  the  members  of  the  Kentucky  delegation  in  which 
the  editor  of  the  Lexington  Herald  took  an  incisive  part. 
Two  of  her  letters  will  be  quoted  illustrating  the  tone 
of  that  correspondence.' 

*  See  Report  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Kentucky  Equal 
Rights  Association. 


224        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

On  March  12,  she  addressed  the  following  letter  to 
each  of  the  members  of  the  Kentucky  Congressional  Dele- 
gation: 

My  dear  Sir: 

The  Louisville  Times  of  March  nth  contained  the  following 
item  sent  by  its  Frankfort  correspondent: 

"Governor  Stanley  received  the  following  telegram  this 
morning  signed  by  Senator  James  and  Congressman  Cantrill 
saying:  'At  a  meeting  in  Senator  James'  office,  this  afternoon, 
at  which  all  of  the  Kentucky  Democratic  members  of  the  House 
but  one  were  present,  the  opinion  was  expressed  that  it  was  not 
within  the  province  of  the  members  of  Congress  to  offer  advice 
to  the  Legislature,  but  each  man  present  expressed  himself  as 
strongly  opposed  to  the  woman  suffrage  amendment  and  hoped 
that  it  would  be  defeated,  in  accordance  with  the  action  of  the 
last  Democratic  State  Convention.  The  one  absent  member  of 
the  House  delegation  could  not  be  located  in  time  for  the 
conference.'" 

If  the  Democratic  members  of  Congress  from  Kentucky  felt 
it  "not  within  their  province"  to  offer  advice  to  the  Legislature 
of  Kentucky  on  the  woman  suffrage  amendment,  may  I  inquire 
what  the  purpose  was  of  the  telegram  to  Governor  Stanley, 
published  presumably  at  his  desire?  Its  purpose  could  hardly 
have  been  simply  to  give  moral  support  to  Governor  Stanley, 
since  he  seems  firm  enough  in  his  convictions  on  the  subject  not 
to  need  support.  It  was  hardly  intended  to  be  a  private  telegram 
or  the  Governor  would  not  have  given  it  out  for  publication. 

The  telegram  states  that  the  senders  "hoped  that  the  woman 
suffrage  amendment  would  be  defeated  in  accordance  with  the 
action  of  the  last  Democratic  State  Convention."  As  Senator 
James  and  Congressman  Cantrill  well  know,  no  action  whatever 
was  taken  by  the  last  Democratic  State  Convention  on  the  question 
of  woman  suffrage.  The  women  of  Kentucky  agree  with  the 
gentlemen  present  in  Senator  James'  office  that  it  is  not  within 
their  province  to  offer  advice  to  the  Legislature;  they,  therefore, 
resent  the  sending  of  this  telegram  to  Frankfort  just  after  the 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  22$ 

woman  suffrage  amendment  had  passed  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of 
26  to  8,  and  when  it  was  about  to  be  voted  upon  by  the  House. 
They  further  resent  that  the  telegram  so  obviously  meant  for  the 
consumption  of  the  Democratic  members  of  the  House  at  Frank- 
fort should  be  intentionally  misleading  as  to  the  position  on  this 
subject  of  the  last  State  Democratic  Convention.  It  is  the 
impression  of  the  women  of  Kentucky  that  Senator  James  and 
Congressman  Cantrill  were  elected  to  represent  their  constituents 
at  Washington,  not  to  represent  the  liquor  interests,  as  opposed  to 
the  women  of  Kentucky,  at  Frankfort. 

The  liquor  interests  have  themselves  during  the  present 
administration  carried  the  war  into  Africa  and  the  women  of 
Kentucky  are  glad  for  the  future  that  these  interests  will  have  to 
wage  it  in  the  open  and  not  secretly  and  under  cover.  The  women 
are  pleased  to  meet  them  on  the  ground  they  have  chosen. 

It  is  quite  impossible  for  any  reasonable  person  to  suppose 
that  the  animus  of  this  telegram  was  simply  conviction  against 
the  mere  submission  of  woman  suffrage  to  the  voters  of  Kentucky, 
a  most  honored  and  ancient  Democratic  method  of  settling  ques- 
tions of  public  importance.  The  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party 
from  President  Wilson  and  the  four  members  of  his  cabinet,  who 
last  November  voted  for  woman  suffrage  when  it  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  voters  in  their  respective  states,  on  down  to  the 
lesser  lights,  have  publicly  declared  their  profound  conviction 
that  the  question  of  woman  suffrage  should  be  settled  by  the 
states  in  exactly  the  method  asked  for  by  the  women  of  Kentucky 
and  just  refused  by  Democratic  members  of  the  Kentucky  House 
who  had  previously  voted  to  let  the  suffrage  amendment  bill  come 
up,  on  Friday,  voted  to  smother  it  according  to  the  orders  of  Gov- 
ernor Stanley  and  on  the  advice  of  Senator  James  and  Congress- 
man Cantrill,  which  it  was  not  "within  their  province"  to  give. 

May  I  inquire.  Sir,  on  behalf  of  the  woman  suffragists  of 
Kentucky,  and  of  the  members  of  the  Legislature  who  resent  the 
advice  which  it  was  not  within  your  province  to  give,  if  you  were 
present  at  the  meeting  at  Senator  James'  office,  and,  if  the  tele- 
gram as  sent  represented  your  wishes  and  was  sent  with  your 
full  knowledge  and  desire  ?  The  senders  state  that  one  member  of 


226         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

the  Kentucky  House  delegation  was  not  present  at  the  meeting. 
It  is  fair  to  give  each  member  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  until  all 
members  have  been  given  an  opportunity  to  make  public  their 
position  in  the  matter.  I,  therefore,  respectfully  request  that 
you  answer  my  inquiry  as  to  whether  you  were  present  at  that 
meeting  and  subscribed  to  the  telegram  sent.  I  shall  be  glad  to 
give  as  great  publicity  as  possible  to  your  answer,  which  in  view 
of  the  publicity  given  the  telegram  by  Governor  Stanley  is  undoubt- 
edly due  you,  that  the  women  of  Kentucky  whom  I  repre- 
sent may  hold  you  responsible  only  for  that  which  you  desire 
to  sponsor. 

After  a  correspondence  in  which  two  things  were 
made  clear:  first,  the  falsity  of  the  original  message,  and, 
second,  the  inaccuracy  and  inadequacy  with  which  other 
members  of  the  delegation  opposed  to  the  measure  thought 
of  the  problem  and  discussed  it — for  example,  one  objected 
to  submitting  the  measure  at  the  time  of  a  presidential 
election  (1916),  when  he  should  have  known  that  the  date 
of  submission  was  the  following  year  (191 7),  one  thought 
the  question  should  be  decided  by  the  votes  of  women, 
knowing,  of  course,  that  there  was  no  constitutional  way 
of  securing  such  a  vote — she  addressed  to  each  member 
of  the  delegation  the  following  letter: 

April  7,  1916 
Dear  Sir: 

In  the  telegram  sent  by  Senator  James  and  Congressman 
Can  trill  to  Governor  Stanley  after  the  Kentucky  Senate  had 
passed  the  bill  to  submit  the  question  of  woman  suffrage  to  the 
voters  of  Kentucky  by  a  vote  of  26  to  8,  and  just  before  the  vote 
was  taken  on  this  measure  in  the  Lower  House,  it  is  stated  that  at  a 
meeting  in  Senator  James'  office  "at  which  all  of  the  Kentucky 
Democratic  members  of  the  House  but  one  were  present"  "each 
man  present  expressed  himself  as  strongly  opposed  to  the  woman 
suffrage  amendment. " 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  227 

In  justice  to  the  Kentucky  Democratic  members  of  the  House 
at  Washington,  I  addressed  a  letter  to  each  one  asking  if  he  was 
present  at  the  meeting  and  if  he  authorized  the  telegram  to  Gover- 
nor Stanley.  From  the  five  repHes  so  far  received  it  developed 
that  the  telegram  was  not  correct  in  stating  that  *'all  of  the 
Kentucky  Democratic  members  of  the  House  but  one  were  present" 
at  the  nieeting  in  Senator  James'  office,  and  four  of  those  replying 
specifically  state  that  they  did  not  authorize  the  telegram,  the 
fifth  leaving  that  question  unanswered.  Since  Congressmen 
Kincheloe,  Rouse  and  Johnson  have  not  yet  replied  to  the  questions 
put  to  them  as  to  whether  they  were  present  and  had  authorized 
the  telegram  sent  by  Senator  James  and  Congressman  Cantrill, 
there  is  yet  no  evidence  that  any  one  of  the  nine  Kentucky  Demo- 
cratic members  of  the  House  authorized  the  telegram  or  even 
knew  that  it  was  to  be  sent,  except  Congressman  Cantrill,  who 
joined  with  Senator  James  in  sending  it. 

The  interference  of  Democratic  Congressmen  when  the  women 
of  Kentucky  were  merely  trying  to  ascertain  the  will  of  the  men 
voters  of  Kentucky  on  the  question  of  woman  suffrage  in  the 
strictest  states'  rights  method,  a  method  advocated  by  President 
Wilson,  the  four  members  of  his  cabinet  who  voted  for  woman 
suffrage  in  their  respective  states  last  fall,  and  by  every  prominent 
member  of  the  Democratic  party  who  has  spoken  on  the  subject, 
was  so  astounding  to  the  women  of  Kentucky  that  they  properly 
withheld  judgment  until  each  Congressman  had  been  given  an 
opportunity  to  speak  for  himself  as  to  his  responsibility  for  the 
telegram. 

The  failure  of  the  Kentucky  House,  under  the  urging  of 
Senator  James,  Congressman  Cantrill  and  Governor  Stanley, 
to  allow  the  submission  bill  to  be  voted  on  at  the  last  session  of 
the  Legislature  does  not,  of  course,  settle  the  question.  Such  a 
bill  will  be  again  submitted  at  the  next  session  and  at  every  session 
until  the  question  is  allowed  to  go  to  the  voters,  or  until  a  Federal 
amendment  granting  woman  suffrage  is  before  that  Legislature 
for  ratification. 

Kentucky  women  much  prefer  to  get  suffrage  by  the  states' 
rights  route — for  the  credit  of  Kentucky  men,  apart  from  all 


228        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

other  considerations.  It  had  not  occurred  to  them  that  even 
those  Kentucky  Democratic  representatives  in  Congress  who  were 
"constitutionally"  opposed  to  woman  suffrage  by  Federal  amend- 
ment, also  desired  to  block  the  settlement  of  the  question  by  the 
states'  rights  route,  advocated  by  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic 
party,  until  the  publication  of  the  telegram  to  Governor  Stanley. 

Though  this  telegram  was  not  authorized  by  the  Kentucky 
Democratic  members  of  the  House  except  Congressman  Cantrill, 
the  failure  on  the  part  of  some  of  those  members  to  repudiate  it 
makes  doubtful  their  attitude  as  to  the  states'  rights  solution 
of  the  question.  On  behalf  of  the  members  of  the  Kentucky  Equal 
Rights  Association,  whom  I  represent,  I  desire,  therefore,  to  give 
to  these  Kentucky  Democratic  members  the  opportunity  to 
publicly  declare  themselves  on  a  question  which  they  themselves 
have  raised. 

Will  you  kindly  state  whether  or  not  you  are  in  principle 
opposed  to  the  settlement  of  the  woman  suffrage  question  by  the 
states'  rights  method?  Will  you  kindly  state  further  whether 
you  will  oppose  or  will  advocate  the  bill  presented  at  this  session 
of  the  Legislature  submitting  the  question  to  the  voters  of  Ken- 
tucky when  it  is  again  presented  by  the  Kentucky  Equal  Rights 
Association  at  the  next  session? 

Though  we  fully  agree  that  it  was  not  within  your  province 
to  advise  the  Legislature,  we  admit  the  claim  made  in  defense 
by  one  of  your  members  that  as  Kentuckians  you  have  a  right  to 
speak  to  citizens  of  Kentucky  on  questions  affecting  your  state. 
This  question  vitally  affects  50  per  cent  of  the  adult  citizens  of 
Kentucky  and  we  desire  to  offer  you  the  fullest  possible  pubhcity 
for  any  statement  of  your  views  which  you  care  to  make. 

Very  truly  yours, 

M.  McD.  Breckinridge 

(Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge) 

Campaign  Chairman 

After  the  legislative  campaign  she  took  part  in  a  con- 
gressional conference  held  by  Mrs.  Catt  in  Louisville, 


VOTES  FOR  WOMEN  229 

March  27-28,  1916.  She  delighted  in  Mrs.  Catt's  effec- 
tiveness. "Mrs.  Catt  is  splendid/'  she  wrote  of  that 
conference,  "I  wish  that  we  could  have  her  for  National 
President  always."  This  was  one  of  a  series  of  con- 
ferences held  by  Mrs.  Catt  with  the  officials  of  local  associa- 
tions with  reference  to  the  relation  between  the  work  in 
the  states  to  secure  amendments  to  state  constitutions  and 
the  work  at  Washington.  Madge  presided  at  some  of  the 
sessions  and  spoke  on  the  importance  of  state  work  as  an 
incident  in  congressional  success. 

She  gave  two  lectures  at  the  University  of  Indiana 
(June  26  and  27)  and  then  went  for  three  months  to  Sara- 
nac.  It  is  from  Saranac  she  wrote  resigning  from  the 
State  Tuberculosis  Commission,  and  many  other  letters 
went  out  from  there,  but  the  autumn  work  was  devoted 
chiefly  perhaps  to  the  plans  for  the  sanatorium,  of  which 
the  cornerstone  was  laid  November  9.  She  was  too  ill 
to  be  present  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  state  associa- 
tion, and  the  winter  was  passed  chiefly  at  Asheville  in 
search  of  yet  another  recovery  of  health. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE 

And  who  knoweth  whether  thou  art  come  to  the  Kitpgdom  for  such  a 
time  as  this? — Esther  4: 14 

The  years  191 7  and  191 8  were  chiefly  devoted  to  local 
problems  and  to  questions  of  a  private  nature.  Her 
beloved  mother  died  early  in  the  year  of  191 7,  there  was 
the  Salvation  Army  fight  in  the  courts,  and  the  ''drive" 
for  the  Tuberculosis  sanatorium.  She  wanted  that  insti- 
tution well  started  while  her  "Aunt  Mag"  was  still  alive. 
She  spoke  for  the  Liberty  Loans  and  was  greatly  interested 
in  the  efforts  at  Lincoln  School  to  meet  certain  recreational 
needs  of  the  soldiers  at  Camp  Stanley.  There  was  no 
legislative  campaign  in  191 8  as  the  national  board  asked 
the  state  association  to  refrain  from  a  campaign  that  all 
efforts  might  be  concentrated  on  a  few  states  and  on 
Washington.  She  spent  much  of  the  winter  months  dur- 
ing both  years  at  Asheville  and  during  the  summer  she 
was  at  Saranac.  She  was  discharged  by  the  physician  as 
again  cured  in  September,  19 18. 

During  her  absence  at  this  time  a  very  genuine  trib- 
ute was  paid  her  by  the  Kentucky  association.'  That 
organization  asked  from  the  farmers  of  the  Blue  Grass 
the  gift  of  one  cup  of  wheat  from  every  bushel  sold.  The 
proceeds  went  to  several  war  funds,  and  with  part  of  the 
money  received  a  nurse  known  as  the"MadeHne  McDowell 

'  President's  report  at  the  Twenty-ninth  Annual  Convention,  Kentucky- 
Equal  Rights  Association. 

230 


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THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  231 

Breckinridge  Nurse  ^'  was  attached  to  a  unit  just  then 
being  equipped  for  service  in  France. 

On  December  26,  19 18,  her  Aunt  Mag  died,  and  there 
were  many  family  problems  to  solve,  for  Aunt  Mag  was 
the  last  of  the  older  generation,  and  the  questions  of 
Ashland,  of  scattered  brothers  and  sisters,  of  property 
developments,  were  not  easy. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Kentucky  Equal  Rights 
Association,  because  of  the  influenza  epidemic,  had  been 
postponed  until  March  11,  191 9,  and  there  seemed  a  clear 
call  for  her  again  to  take  the  leadership,  especially  as 
prospects  for  the  passage  of  the  Anthony  amendment  by 
Congress  grew  brighter.  She  allowed  herself  therefore  to 
be  elected  for  the  years  19 19,  1920,  192 1,  and  turned  her 
attention  to  two  lines  of  effort,  first,  that  of  securing 
favorable  votes  by  members  of  the  Kentucky  delegation  in 
Congress,  and,  second,  that  of  preparing  for  the  new  re- 
sponsibility that  would  result  from  the  vote's  being  won. 
In  connection  with  the  first,  the  experience  with  the  dele- 
gation in  1 9 16  will  be  recalled.  Some  members  from 
Kentucky,  like  Hon.  J.  W.  Langley,  were  old  friends,  tried 
and  true ;  others  had  already  seen  the  Hght  with  President 
Wilson's  appeal,  others  appeared  ready  to  yield  were  suffi- 
cient pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  them;  one,  Senator 
James,  was  removed  by  death,  and  his  successor,  Hon. 
George  B.  Martin,  supported  Mr.  Wilson;  one.  Senator 
Beckham,  remained  obdurate  until  the  end. 

Prior  to  June  4,  1919,  then,  when  the  federal  amend- 
ment finally  passed,  she  was  concerned  with  the  congres- 
sional action.  Immediately  upon  its  passage  she  became 
concerned  for  its  ratification  by  the  Kentucky  legislature. 
And  she  determined  to  obtain  that  ratification  on  the 


232        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

opening  day  of  the  session.  No  such  action  had  ever 
been  taken  by  the  legislature,  which  usually  contented 
itself  with  electing  presiding  officers  for  the  two  houses  on 
the  first  day,  if  it  did  so  much  as  that. 

But  she  thought  "time  was  of  the  essence"  of  the 
action.  She  later  made  a  report  of  the  year's  work  to 
the  national  association,  but  in  that  report'  she  gives 
no  idea  of  the  labor  involved  in  the  undertaking.  It 
meant  speaking  and  writing  and  returning  to  the  old 
activities  of  1 9 1 3-1 4.  On  the  Fourth  of  July,  for  example, 
she  went  to  Pikeville  in  the  coal  region  and  wrote  delight- 
fully of  the  trip. 

A  trip  down  the  Big  Sandy  Valley  from  Ashland  to  Pikeville  is  a 
joy  forever.  Even  July  heat  is  tempered  by  the  deep  green  of  the 
hills  and  the  rippling  of  the  clear  water  over  the  little  pebbles  or 
the  sandy  bottoms.  Because  the  view  is  better  one  almost  forgives 
the  C.  &  O.  Railroad  for  charging  for  parlor  car  seats  in  a  car  where 
there  are  neither  wire  gauze  nor  cinder  fenders.  But  in  spite  of 
cinders  in  one's  eyes,  one  is  glad  to  be  able  to  get  a  seat  even  by 
paying  extra  for  it,  on  this  crowded  day  before  the  Fourth,  when  all 
Big  Sandy  is  journeying  to  Pikeville  for  the  Homecoming  of  its 
soldiers. 

The  Homecoming  was  indeed  a  picturesque  and  joyous  occasion. 
The  people  poured  in  all  the  day  before  and  during  the  early 
morning.  And  from  the  beginning  of  the  program  until  late  at 
night,  when  the  last  of  the  splendid  fireworks  had  gone  out,  women 
and  children,  old  men  and  boys  in  khaki,  enjoyed  themselves  with- 
out a  single  untoward  incident,  with  a  friendliness  and  order  that 
would  convert  anyone  to  believe  that  a  Fourth  of  July  can  always 
be  a  sane  Fourth  when  the  country  has  gone  dry. 

Mrs.  John  W.  Langley,  the  chairman  of  the  Red  Cross  Com- 
mittee that  had  the  day  in  charge,  had  omitted  no  detail  to  add  to 
the  comfort  and  happiness  of  her  guests.  From  the  great  flags  of 
the  Allied  countries  that  swung  over  the  campus,  loaned  by  the 

*  See  Thirtieth  and  Last  Annual  Report  of  the  Kentucky  Equal  Rights 
Association. 


THE  'END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  233 

United  States  government  for  the  occasion,  to  the  tank  which  had 
been  able  to  get  through  Flanders  mud  but  ultimately  stuck  in  the 
hillside  in  Pikeville  mud;  'from  the  burgoo,  made  by  a  specialist 
imported  from  Lexington  for  the  occasion,  to  the  final  announce- 
ment in  the  afternoon  that  eighty  beds  and  eighty  suppers  were 
prepared  at  the  hotels  for  any  soldiers  who  would  honor  the  town 
by  spending  the  night,  no  detail  was  omitted  to  make  the  boys 
feel  it  a  true  welcome  home. 

Pikeville,  with  its  brick  streets,  its  excellent  school  building  and 
a  number  of  handsome  residences,  has  almost  lost  the  air  of  the 
mountain  village  which  it  had  before  the  railroad  came  in.  But 
as  one  goes  along  the  way  from  there  across  the  divide  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Kentucky,  near  Jenkins,  there  is  a  constant  contrast 
of  the  picturesque  log  cabin  of  the  pioneer,  with  its  sloping  roof 
and  great  stone  chimneys,  and  the  evidences  of  modern  industry  at 
fever  heat.  Just  as  at  the  Homecoming  one  saw  the  old  ladies  with 
their  black  silk  bonnets,  and  heard  the  "hit"  and  the  strong  past 
tenses  of  Elizabethan  speech,  in  contrast  with  the  ringing  sentences 
of  the  Congressman  home  from  the  special  session  for  a  few  brief 
days'  holiday,  or  the  neat  modern  uniforms  of  the  boys  in  khaki. 
The  mountain  soldier  who  had  taken  his  machine-gun  nest  and  his 
German  officer  and  privates  single-handed,  was  there  to  make  his 
bow  to  the  people  who  were  ready  to  adore  him  and  glory  in 
his  marksmanship,  but  he  begged  not  to  be  asked  to  make  a  speech, 
since  he  had  been  gassed  and  the  heat  of  the  day  brought  back  the 
nervousness  from  which  he  still  suffers  greatly. 

At  Jenkins  the  contrast  of  the  old  and  the  new  was  still  more 
striking.  The  ''Trail  of  the  Lonesome  Pine"  came  down  over  the 
mountain  into  the  garden  of  the  beautiful  home  in  which  we  stayed. 
It  seemed  as  lonesome,  as  remote,  as  peaceful,  as  if  the  site  of 
Jenkins  were  still  wrapped  in  the  quiet  and  indolence  of  the  past. 
Looking  out  over  the  beautiful  little  lake  whose  waters  flow  through 
the  turbines  of  the  Consolidation  Coal  Company's  power  plant, 
the  hills  across  the  way  with  their  pines,  their  cucumber  mag- 
nohas,  their  laurel  and  rhododendron,  on  which  a  few  late  blossoms 
linger  like  white  stars  in  the  gloom,  have  the  same  still  look.    One 


234        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

feels  as  if  it  were  not  quite  true  when  one  gets  a  little  way  down  into 
the  town,  passing  the  clay  tennis  courts,  the  grassy,  well-equipped 
children's  playground,  to  the  Recreation  Building,  where  an  up-to- 
date  picture  show  is  in  progress,  where  boys  and  young  men  are 
playing  biUiards  and  pool,  or  enjoying  the  reading  room  and 
shower  baths.  The  Company  store,  its  bakery  and  butcher  shop 
are  sanitary  models  that  larger  cities  in  our  state  may  envy.  The 
excellent  school  building,  built  by  the  Company  and  presented  to 
the  city,  is  almost  as  good  a  testimonial  to  that  ''enlightened  self- 
interest"  which  is  beginning  to  make  some  corporations  seem  not 
at  all  soulless,  as  are  the  four  trained  nurses  who  care  for  the  health 
of  the  several  thousand  employees  and  their  families  under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  Knoxville  supervising  nurse  and  welfare  worker  who  is  a 
relative  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  who  shows  the  traits  of  the  "Old 
Ironsides"  strain  in  her  executive  ability,  and  her  calm  decision, 
and  even  an  improvement  on  them  in  the  true  democracy  that 
reaches  out  a  helping  hand  to  everybody  in  need,  and  the  faith  that 
the  best  she  can  give  to  people  is  education  to  care  for  and  uplift 
themselves. 

To  take  a  Pullman  sleeper  at  McRoberts,  knowing  that  one  will 
wake  up  in  Lexington"  the  next  morning,  is  a  far  cry  from  the  days 
of  the  last  century,  of  the  year  1899,  to  be  exact,  when  the  present 
writer  followed  the  Kentucky  River  up  to  its  beginning  in  a  horse- 
back and  driving  trip  in  which  one  pitched  one's  tent  at  night  and 
came  very  close  to  the  people,  living  in  the  often  windowless  log 
cabins.  From  McRoberts  to  Whitesburg,  and  on  toward  Hazard 
one  seems  to  pass  a  new  coal  camp  every  few  minutes,  with  its  rows 
of  uniform  miners'  houses,  its  stores  and  modern  utilities,  and  the 
constant  evidences  of  the  stored  up  richness  of  centuries  which  is 
being  taken  out  of  the  mountain  sides.^ 

One  who  rode  thirty  miles  over  the  hills  to  hear  her 
speak  that  day  said: 

The  speeches  came  in  the  afternoon,  and  if  our  ride  had  been  a 
hundred  miles  across  the  mountain  we  would  have  felt  amply 
repaid  for  it  when  we  stood  and  heard  a  tall,  dehcate,  graceful 

*  Lexington  Herald,  July  13,  1919. 


/  THE'  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  235 

woman,  the  President  of  the  Woman  Suffrage  Association  of  Ken- 
tucky, tell  what  the  women  of  Kentucky  want.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
mantle  of  ''Harry  of  the  West"  had  fallen  on  her  shoulders,  and 
as  she  closed,  our  eyes  were  filled  with  tears  and  I  shook 'hands 
enthusiastically  with  a  grim-faced  mountaineer  who  said :  "  By  God, 
that's  the  best  I  ever  heard,  man  or  woman,  and  I'm  for  her. " 

In  the  autumn  she  made  the  kind  of  tour  of  the  region 
about  the  city  of  Ashland  that  she  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  making  back  before  the  autumn  of  191 5,  when  every 
day  for  a  week  she  started  out  at  six  in  the  morning  and 
spoke  in  a  different  place  each  afternoon  and  evening, 
until  she  had  made  the  circuit  of  the  towns  in  which 
special  pressure  had  to  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  voters 
at  the  approaching  election.  For  during  these  weeks  she 
had  in  mind  the  possible  action  of  the  candidates  stand- 
ing for  election  to  the  legislature.  If  there  were  opposing 
candidates  in  any  district,  as  there  usually  were,  both 
had  to  be  converted  to  the  novel  idea  of  giving  the  women 
what  they  wanted  on  the  opening  day. 

After  the  election,  the  work  continued  with  the  con- 
stituents of  the  successful  candidates.  Then  she  planned 
a  brilliant  setting  for  their  act  of  ratification.  The  annual 
meeting  of  the  Association  was  set  for  the  opening  day  of 
the  legislative  session,  Mrs.  Pankhurst  and  Mrs.  Charles 
L.  Tiffany,  of  New  York,  were  invited  as  distinguished 
speakers  from  away,  a  notable  evening  session  was 
planned  at  which  the  new  governor,  Edwin  P.  Morrow, 
and  Senator  Clem  S.  Nunn  were  to  be  among  the  speakers, 
and  the  idea  went  out  that  the  evening  would  be  one  of  re- 
joicings for  things  accomplished,  not  conference  for  further 
action.  The  women  were  given  to  understand  that  they 
might  witness  the  act  of  ratification,  the  members  of  the 


236        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

legislature  were  given  a  greater  audience  for  their  motions 
and  their  voting  than  they  usually  enjoyed.  The  pro- 
gram of  that  annual  meeting  was  something  like  this: 
Monday  evening,  board  meeting  over  the  dinner  table  at 
337  Linden  Walk;  Tuesday  morning,  Association  as- 
sembled in  Frankfort;  Tuesday  afternoon,  ratification 
completed  by  four  o'clock  by  votes  of  72  to  25  in  the  House 
and  of  30  to  8  in  the  Senate;  Tuesday  evening,  a  dinner  at 
Ashland  for  the  guests  and  a  public  meeting  in  the  large 
hall  of  the  city;  Wednesday,  morning  and  afternoon,  busi- 
ness meetings,  plans  for  the  reorganization  of  the  Asso- 
ciation and  for  such  legislative  activity  as  should  prove 
necessary,  a  reception  at  Ashland  in  the  afternoon,  a 
dinner  in  the  evening,  and  another  public  meeting  with 
Mrs.  Pankhurst  as  chief  orator;  Thursday,  a  return  to 
Frankfort  to  witness  the  signing  of  the  bill  and  a  final 
meeting  of  the  board.  From  Monday  afternoon  until 
Thursday  night!    But  her  object  was  accomplished. 

She  was  not  through  with  her  work,  however,  for  she 
must  continue  her  efforts  to  raise  money  to  help  with 
campaigns  in  other  states. 

She  attended  the  "Jubilee"  convention  in  Chicago  in 
February,  1920,  and  spoke  at  the  Valentine  Evening, 
February  14,  with  the  other  presidents  of  states  that  had 
ratified.  No  one  who  heard  her  that  evening  will  ever 
forget  her  beauty  as  she  stood  framed  in  the  Valentine 
frame  or  her  whimsical  humor  as  she  recited  her  two- 
minute  parody  on  "Old  Kentucky  Home'': 

The  sun  shines  bright  in  my  old  Kentucky  home, 
'Tis  winter,  the  ladies  are  gay, 
The  com  top's  gone,  prohibition's  in  the  swing, 
The  colonel's  in  eclipse  and  the  women  in  the  ring. 


MADGE,  1920 

Portrait  painted  for  the  Abraham  Lincoln  School  by  Miss  E.  Sophonisba 
Hergersheimer. 


THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  237 

We'll  get  all  our  rights  with  the  help  of  Uncle  Sam, 

For  the  way  that  they  come,  we  don't  give  a . 

Weep  no  more,  my  lady.  Oh,  weep  no  more  today. 
For  we'll  vote  one  vote  for  the  old  Kentucky  home, 
The  old  Kentucky  home,  far  away. 

Nor  will  anyone  who  was  there  forget  how,  when  she 
stopped  speaking,  all  were  laughing,  yet  all  were  in  tears, 
and  all  rose  in  a  spontaneous  response  to  the  challenge  so 
gaily  but  so  appealingly  uttered. 

At  the  ^'Jubilee"  convention  she  likewise  spoke  on  the 
"Founders''  day,  giving  the  tiny  four-minute  sketch 
allowed  to  the  decade  between  1830  and  1840  in  the  suf- 
frage history,  and  received  a  diploma;  and  the  convention 
experience  decided  her  to  go  to  the  meeting  of  the  Inter- 
national Women's  Suffrage  Alliance  at  Geneva. 

Before  sailing  she  spent  two  weeks  in  Connecticut, 
where  the  suffragists  were  trying  to  win  over  the  recalci- 
trant governor.  She  also  prepared  a  report  on  the 
Kentucky  work  for  the  last  yearbook  of  the  national 
association;  and  in  the  late  evening  of  the  day  before  the 
boat  sailed,  after  her  packing  was  done,  she  thought  of 
making  a  will.  After  making  certain  bequests  to  her  hus- 
band, her  sister,  Nannette,  and  others,  she  disposed  of 
the  rest  of  her  property  in  the  following  words : 

....  With  the  remaining  quarter  if  there  is  sufficient  I  would 
like  certain  things  done.  First,  I  should  like  paid  to  the  District 
Board  of  Fayette  County  Tuberculosis  Sanatorium,  approximately 
the  difference  between  the  $10,000  which  my  aunt  gave  for  the 
Children's  Building  and  what  was  the  actual  cost  of  building  and 
equipping  that  building.  I  should  like  a  bronze  tablet  to  my  aunt, 
Magdalen  Harvey  McDowell,  put  in  the  building,  presumably 
opposite  the  one  now  placed  there  to  her  father,  stating  that  the 
building  and  equipment  is  her  gift  and  that  she  was  the  daughter  of 
Dr.  W.  A.  McDowell 


238        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

....  I  should  like  to  insure  the  completion  of  the  playground 
at  the  Abraham  Lincoln  School  in  Lexington.  If  I  were  rich  enough 
I  should  like  to  leave  a  nest-egg  to  a  fund  to  insure  the  preservation 
of  Ashland  as  a  public  park,  but  as  I  have  already  probably  given 
away  more  than  I  have,  I  can  only  leave  the  suggestion  to  other 
members  of  the  family 

During  her  absence,  Tennessee  ratified,  and  she  came 
back  to  make  her  decision  as  an  enfranchised  citizen.  I 
have  said,  however,  that  the  year  19 19  saw  her  likewise 
engaged  in  preparations  for  the  new  responsibihties  that 
would  come  with  the  vote.  In  March  of  that  year  she 
was  in  a  very  serious  automobile  accident  in  which,  while 
she  was  not  permanently  injured,  she  was  greatly  bruised 
and  shocked.  When  she  learned,  however,  that  at  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  national  association  held  during  the 
last  week  in  March  in  St.  Louis  plans  for  a  new  league  of 
women  voters  would  be  considered,  she  could  not  be.  per- 
suaded to  give  up  the  trip.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  she  went' 
to  St.  Louis,  attended  every  session  of  the  convention,  and 
was  greatly  concerned  with  the  plans  for  the  new  organiza- 
tion. On  her  return  she  secured  the  services  of  Miss 
Mary  Scrugham,  a  student  of  history  and  politics,  to 
prepare  a  series  of  lessons  on  citizenship,  which  were  pub- 
lished and  distributed  to  study  groups  whose  formation 
she  was  stimulating  all  over  the  state. 

And  so  this  partial  record  is  almost  ended.  The  story 
is  far  from  complete.  There  are  many  aspects  of  her  life 
to  which  only  barest  reference,  if  any,  has  been  made. 
Her  constant  affection  for  the  members  of  her  family, 
whom  she  so  loved,  the  thought  for  her  neighbors,  for  the 
aged,  and  for  those  whom  she  employed  or  had  employed, 
her  generous  and  eager  hospitality,  so  spontaneous  and  so 
friendly  and  so  abounding,  the  hidden  kindnesses — truly 


THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  239 

"she  did  the  Httle  kindnesses,  which  most  leave  undone  or 
despise. "  All  these  are  barely  mentioned.  But  they  are 
not  forgotten,  those  kindly  acts.  Of  the  old  Ashland 
days,  one  of  her  numerous  cousins  writes: 

I  have  just  received  the  sad  tidings  and  great  is  my  distress. 
My  heart  goes  out  to  you,  my  devoted  and  lifelong  friend.  What  a 
charming  and  wonderful  person  she  was.  How  great  a  loss  her 
passing  is  to  you,  to  her  relatives  and  friends — ^and  to  the  country. 
A  leader  among  women,  she  fought  valiantly  and  brilliantly  ever  for 
what  was  right  and  sound.  Great  of  heart,  she  possessed  an  orderly, 
a  scintillating  and  an  incisive  intellect.  Of  the  descendants  of 
Henry  Clay  she  alone  inherited  his  command  of  language,  his 
power  to  sway  and  convince;  as  a  thinker  she  was  most  profound. 
How  sweet — and  sad — it  is  to  recall  the  days  when  we  were  young 
together  in  old  Lexington  and  at  Ashland.  Days  when  cares  were 
few  and  pleasures  many. 

When  I  last  saw  her  she  looked  so  well;  she  was  in  such  excellent 
spirits;  she  asked  me  if  I  thought  young  people  of  the  present  gen- 
eration get  as  much  worth  while  out  of  life  as  we  used  to.  We 
talked  of  the  time  when  our  little  coterie  formed  our  first  club; 
she  was  elected  president.  We  laughed  over  discussions  the  more 
serious  among  us  were  wont  to  indulge  in — and  wondered  what  had 
become  of  this  friend  and  that. 

The  death  of  one  so  generous,  so  hospitable  always  to  me  and 
mine  means  more  than  I  can  say. 

God  bless  her — and  you 

And  another  tribute  to  the  impressions  left  by  her  kindness 
may  be  allowed  here.  One  who  had  not  seen  her  since 
the  mountain  trip  to  which  reference  was  made  in  an 
earHer  chapter  writes: 

I  shall  never  forget  Mrs.  Breckinridge's  kindness  to  me  when  I, 
as  a  very  young  man,  was  invited  to  visit  Ashland  for  three  happy 
days  way  back  in  1899,  after  that  memorable  horseback  ride  in  the 
Kentucky  mountains  when  I  acted  as  an  assistant  to  Professor 
Penniman,  of  Berea,  who  captained  the  trip. 


240        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Out  of  the  kindness  of  her  heart  Mrs.  Breckinridge  saw  that  I 
was  out  of  my  element  and  rather  lonely  for  a  New  York  boy  and 
took  an  interest  in  the  reasons  why  I  was  in  that  part  of- the  country. 

The  memories  of  her  kindness  and  those  three  days  at  Ashland 
are  very  happy  ones,  and  will  always  be  treasured  ones.  Your 
kindness  also  I  shall  not  forget,  and  that  of  the  members  of  the 
family,  to  whom  I  also  extend  deep  sympathy. 

And  one  of  those  who  worked  with  her  during  the  later 
years,  one  who  is  still  "carrying  on"  wrote: 

....  I  have  longed  for  her  to  know  how  much  she  was  beloved 
in  this  State.  I  loved  her  and  admired  her  for  many  years,  and 
yet  I  feel  as  if  none  of  us  expressed  that  love  and  admiration  com- 
pletely while  she  was  here  with  us.  She  was  the  most  wonderful 
woman  I  have  ever  known,  or  ever  expect  to  know,  for  she  com- 
bined all  the  great  qualities  of  heart  and  mind  and  soul.  And  her 
unfailing  sweetness  and  charm ! 

I  recall  so  many,  many  times  that  I  have  spent  with  her  and 
enjoyed  her  companionship.  She  was  so  kind  and  affectionate 
always,  and  I  remember  the  frequent  visits  to  your  home,  every  one 
of  which  was  a  pleasure  enjoyed  to  the  utmost.  I  am  sure  it  is  a 
comfort  to  you  to  know  that  you  made  her  happy  and  that  during 
all  the  years  of  your  life  together  you  helped  her  to  the  fullest  extent 
in  every  one  of  her  efforts  for  the  benefit  of  this  community  and 
State. 

I  am  glad  to  think  that  Madge  had  such  a  happy  summer  abroad 
and  that  she  came  home  to  take  active  part  in  trying  to  aid  the  wel- 
fare of  the  world  by  her  speeches  in  behalf  of  the  League  of  Nations. 
I  am  glad,  too,  that  she  lived  to  cast  her  vote,  the  vote  for  which  she 
labored  so  earnestly  and  so  brilliantly.  And  then  I  am  glad  also 
that  during  the  last  few  weeks  her  efforts  were  centered  on  the  work 
she  loved  the  best — the  outdoor  school,  the  playgrounds,  and  the 
social  work  at  Lincoln  school.  At  the  Civic  League  meeting  on 
October  14  I  never  saw  Madge  more  gay,  more  cheerful,  or  more 
hopeful  concerning  the  work  for  the  bettermer^t  of  this  community. 

Then,  on  the  last  day,  her  heart  turned  to  her  family  and  friends 
and  she  telephoned  so  many  of  us,  as  if  taking  an  unconscious  fare- 


THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  241 

well.  She  spoke  to  my  mother  at  12  o'clock  about  a  present  for 
my  baby,  and  just  about  that  time  I  was  speaking  of  her  and  her 
work  to  a  friend  in  Paris,  and  that  evening  I  planned  for  the  pres- 
entation of  her  portrait  as  a  Christmas  gift  to  Lincoln  school. 

It  is  difficult  not  to  attempt  to  portray  her  love  for 
children,  her  sense  of  the  relation  of  mother  and  child  as 
a  regenerating  force  in  society.  She  prepared  for  the 
PoUtical  Science  Committee  of  the  General  Federation  of 
Women^s  Clubs  a  paper  that  was  widely  circulated  on 
the ' 'Mother's  Sphere. ' '  She  delighted  to  quote  KipUng's 
^'Motherof  Mine": 

If  I  were  hanged  on  the  highest  hill, 

Mother  o'  mine,  O,  mother  o'  mine! 
I  know  whose  love  would  follow  me  still. 

Mother  o'  mine,  O,  mother  o'  mine! 

If  I  were  drowned  in  the  deepest  sea. 

Mother  o'  mine,  O,  mother  o'  mine! 
I  know  whose  tears  would  come  down  to  me, 

Mother  o'  mine,  O,  mother  o'  mine! 

If  I  were  damned  of  body  and  soul, 

Mother  o'  mine,  O,  mother  o'  mine! 
I  know  whose  prayers  would  make  me  whole. 

Mother  o'  mine,  O,  mother  o'  mine! 

and  Charlotte  Perkins  Oilman's  "Mother  to  Child'^ 

How  best  can  I  serve  thee  ?  O  child,  if  they  knew 
How  my  heart  aches  with  loving!    How  deep  and  how  true, 
How  brave  and  enduring,  how  patient  and  strong, 
How  longing  for  good,  how  fearful  of  wrong. 
Is  the  love  of  thy  mother! 

Thou  art  one  with  the  rest,  I  must  love  thee  in  them. 
Thou  wilt  sin  with  the  rest;  and  thy  mother  must  stem 
The  world's  sin.     Thou  wilt  weep ;  and  thy  mother  must  dry 
The  tears  of  the  world,  lest  her  darling  should  cry. 
I  will  do  it — God  helping! 


242         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

And  I  stand  not  alone.     I  will  gather  a  band 
Of  all  loving  mothers  from  land  unto  land. 
Our  children  are  part  of  the  world!     Do  we  hear  ? 
They  are  one  with  the  world — we  must  hold  them  all  dear! 
Love  all  for  the  child's  sake. 

For  the  sake  of  my  child  I  must  hasten  to  save 
All  the  children  on  earth  from  the  jail  and  the  grave. 
For  so,  and  so  only,  I  lighten  the  share 
Of  the  pain  of  the  world  that  my  darling  must  bear — 
Even  so  and  so  only. 

It  is  indeed  difficult,  too,  not  to  dwell  again  on  the  spon- 
taneous outburst  of  affection  and  distress  that  followed 
her  death.  During  her  funeral,  the  street  cars  were  still 
for  a  minute  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  her  and  the  flag  on  the 
federal  building  floated  all  that  day  at  half-mast.  It  is 
also  difficult  not  to  try  more  fully  to  exhibit  her  gaiety 
and  charm.  She  was  a  very  happy,  indeed  a  very  merry, 
person.  She  had  a  way,  too,  of  turning  all  things  to  her 
own  uses.  She  read  widely  and  accurately.  She  listened 
humbly  although  always  independently.  She  lived  deeply 
and  frankly  and  courageously,  and  every  experience 
enriched  every  effort.  Her  life  was  peculiarly  organic 
and  entire.  She  was  often  made  to  feel  that  what  she 
asked  for  the  causes  she  served  was  responded  to  in  a 
personal  way,  and  there  was  sometimes  a  moment  of 
exasperation,  perhaps  of  discouraged  resentment — that  is, 
of  course,  far  too  strong  a  term — but  she  writes  to  one  of 
the  men  of  the  Civic  League  who  had  been  elected  to  an 
office  and  declined,  as  if  it  were  asking  too  much:  "If  no 
one  wants  a  Civic  League,  I  do  not  see  why  I  should  kill 
myself  keeping  it  alive."  So,  in  defending  her  plan  of 
giving  her  large  contributions  on  condition  of  others  being 
found  to  give  like  amounts,  she  writes:  "If  there  are  not 


THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  243 

nine  others  who  want  suffrage  enough  to  give  $50,  I  will 
put  my  $50  elsewhere/^  But  such  moments  were  few 
and  far  apart,  and  she  knew  no  real  discouragement. 

And  so  it  is  tempting  to  talk  of  her  herself.  But  that 
cannot  be — at  least  not  now.  What  she  did  is  registered 
in  the  institutions  she  builded,  the  laws  she  drafted,  the 
agencies  she  organized  and  strengthened,  the  standards 
she  set ;  what  she  was  cannot  yet  be  spoken.  Reference 
should,  however,  be  briefly  made  to  her  views  on  some  of 
the  great  questions  to  which  she  gave  perhaps  chiefly 
pecuniary  support  and  the  aid  and  comfort  of  her  sym- 
pathy without  being  able  to  devote  consecutive  effort  to 
their  advancement. 

With  the  labor  movement  she  was  deeply  sympathetic. 
The  question  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  and 
organizations  affiHated  with  that  body  assumes  quite 
different  aspects  in  a  southern  community  from  those 
under  which  it  appears  in  a  northern  community.  In 
Kentucky  there  has  been  slight  immigration;  the  problem 
of  unskilled  labor  is  the  problem,  on  the  whole,  of  negro 
labor,  and  the  unions  have  until  very  recently,  when  under 
the  pressure  of  war  needs  they  were  compelled  to  alter 
their  policy,  refused  to  bridge  the  color  line.  But  she 
early  sought  their  co-operation  in  the  enactment  of  social 
legislation,  and  she  wrote  in  1918  to  Mrs.  Raymond 
Robins,  the  president  of  the  National  Women's  Trade 
Union  League,  after  urging  Mrs.  Robins  to  come  to 
Lexington  with  Colonel  Robins,  who  was  coming  to  speak 
and  to  be  her  guest: 

Also  for  a  long  time  I  have  had  it  in  mind  to  ask  you  to  come 
here  to  help  us  with  some  work  in  the  interest  of  the  girls;  and  only 
a  few  weeks  ago  when  the  Y.W.C.A.  asked  me  to  introduce  Miss 


244        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Van  Kleeck,  I  asked  them  if  they  did  not  want  to  combine  with  the 
Civic  League  to  bring  you  to  Lexington  for  a  meeting.  I  want  to 
show  you  my  community  center  school,  the  Tuberculosis  Sana- 
torium, and  other  things  we  work  at;  I  am  sure  that  we  are  only 
touching  the  surface,  and  that  the  best  is  to  make  the  workers  them- 
selves in  a  position  to  help  themselves. 

Then,  too,  there  was  the  question  of  the  pacifist  move- 
ment, led  by  Miss  Jane  Addams,  to  whom  she  paid  always 
such  loyal,  constant,  and  grateful  devotion.  She  had 
always  delighted  in  the  way  Miss  Addams  made  her 
at  home  at  Hull-House,  and  had  from  the  days  of  Democ- 
racy and  Social  Ethics  attempted  to  absorb  from  Miss 
Addams'  writings  as  well  as  to  learn  from  her  work.  She 
had  no  hesitation  in  asking  and  accepting  aid  from  Miss 
Addams  when  she  went  to  Chicago  to  beg  for  Lincoln 
School.  She  longed  to  have  Miss  Addams  visit  Lexing- 
ton. She  welcomed  Mme  Schwimmer  and  Mrs.  Pethick- 
Lawrence  when  they  came  in  the  autumn  of  19 14  in  the 
name  of  women  and  peace;  in  the  summer  of  1920,  she 
delighted  in  the  opportunity  of  seeing  Mrs.  Pethick- 
Lawrence  in  London. 

But  she  was  not  a  "pacifist. "  In  the  autumn  of  1914 
and  the  winter  of  191 5,  when  her  active  help  was  asked 
in  the  organization  of  the  Woman's  Peace  Party,  now  the 
United  States  Section  of  the  Women's  International 
League  for  Peace  and  Freedom,  with  headquarters  at 
Geneva,  she  felt  compelled  to  refuse.  She  said  in  refusing 
that  aid: 

No,  ma'am,  I  couldn't  possibly  act  as  Peace  Chairman  for 
Kentucky  and  I  couldn't  act  on  the  committee  you  have  asked  me 
to  take  in  your  letter  of  April  24th.  I  am  doing  now  just  every- 
thing I  possibly  can  do;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  don't  believe 
I  can  do  anything  better  toward  permanent  peace  than  to  work  for 
suffrage. 


THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  245 

One  of  the  reasons  I  didn't  go  to  the  Washington  meeting  was 
that  I  knew  I  could  not  be  responsible  for  a  new  propaganda  in  Ken- 
tucky, and  that  if  I  were  present  at  that  meeting  it  would  be  very 
hard  to  resist  obligating  myself  in  some  way.  Moreover,  I  am 
not  the  kind  of  non-resistant  that  Mrs.  Meade  is.  I  believe  in  a 
certain  amount  of  preparedness  and  in  some  military  training  for 
all  our  boys,  similar  to  the  New  Zealand  system.  Right  now,  for 
instance,  I  am  keen  that  the  United  States  should  get  in  on  the  side 
of  the  allies  and  help  to  bring  about  permanent  peace  by  whipping 
Germany  to  a  finish.  I  consider  that  entirely  peaceful,  just  as  I 
would  consider  that  forceful  resistance  to  a  burglar  who  was  trying 
to  take  your  life  or  your  goods  was  in  the  interest  of  law  and  order 
and  permanent  peace  rather  than  to  tell  the  burglar  that  you 
believe  the  police  force  ought  to  protect  you,  therefore,  you 
wouldn't  resist.^ 

But  she  longed  for  peace  and  for  a  world  governed 
by  law  and  informed  with  good  will.  She  was  happy  to  be 
chosen  to  preside  at  the  so-called  Women's  Victory 
Dinner,  held  in  Washington,  February  12,  1919.  When 
she  stood  as  a  fair  and  graceful  representative  not  of  any 
group,  but  of  all  the  women  of  the  United  States,  she  was 
grateful  for  a  victory  which  she  thought  would  lead  to  a 
peace  based  on  the  "  Fourteen  Points. "  She  would  have 
been  happy  to  help  in  making  that  peace,  what  the 
world  longed  for,  a  peace  of  justice  and  good  will.  She 
was  not  satisfied  with  the  Treaty.  She  regretted  Shan- 
tung, and  every  evidence  that  it  was  a  dictated  peace 
rather  than  a  peace  of  justice.  But  the  faults  of  the 
treaty  she  thought  could  be  cured,  and  she  for  the  time 
accepted  them  for  the  sake  of  the  League  of  Nations,  in 
which  she  thought  the  hope  of  future  peace — indeed  of 
civilization  itself — ^was  involved.  She  remembered  the 
teachings  of  history  as  to  the  centuries  necessary  for  the 

*  In  a  letter  to  Miss  Laura  White,  Louisville,  Kentucky,  May  20,  1915. 


246         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

substitution  of  the  legal  processes  of  the  criminal  law 
for  the  ancient  methods  of  personal  vengeance — and 
Kentucky  has  still  an  unwritten  law  which  the  man  "of 
honor"  does  not  leave  to  the  courts  for  execution.  She 
did  not  expect  a  miracle,  she  wanted  to  take  a  step,  as 
long  a  step  as  possible,  in  advance.  Then,  too,  the  League 
recognized  labor  and  women,  and  she  supported  it,  deter- 
mined not  only  to  vote  but  to  speak  for  it,  and  spoke 
not  only  in  Kentucky,  but  in  Missouri  and  Nebraska, 
giving  a  week  to  each  of  those  states.  An  examination 
of  her  schedule  (worked  out  for  her  by  the  chairman  of  the 
Democratic  Speaker's  Bureau  at  Louisville)  during  one 
of  those  two  weeks  will  reveal  somewhat  of  how  much  she 
cared. 

Itinerary  and  Train  Schedule  of  Mrs.  Madeline 
Breckinridge 

Kentucky 

October  i8  to  23  inclusive 

October  18,  Monday  Harrisonville  2  p.m. 

Pleasant  Hill    7 :  30  p.m. 

October  19,  Tuesday  Princeton         1:30  P.M. 

Trenton  7 :  30  p.m. 

October  20,  Wednesday      Jamesport  2  p.m. 

Gallatin  7 :  30  p.m. 

(with  Judge  Farrington) 

October  21,  Thursday         Higginsville  2  p.m. 

Carrollton        8 :  20  p.m. 

October  22,  Friday  •  Glasgow  3:00  P.M. 

New  Franklin  7 :  30  p.m. 

October  23,  Saturday  Columbia  2  p.m. 

Fulton  8  P.M. 


THE  END  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  247 

Leave  Kansas  City  8:20  a.m.,  arrive  Harrisonville  10:15  a.m. 
October  18,  speak  2  p.m.;  motor  to  Pleasant  Hill,  8  p.m.  (Frisco 
RR.). 

Leave  Pleasant  Hill,  via  Mo.  Pac,  5 :  55  a.m.,  arrive  Kansas  City 
7:20  A.M.,  October  19;  leave  Kansas  City  8:15  a.m.,  C.R.I.  &  P. 
RR.,  arrive  Princeton  1:10  p.m.,  speak  1:30  p.m.,  leave  Princeton 
2:30  P.M.,  arrive  Trenton  3: 25  p.m.,  speak  7:30  p.m.  (Trenton  is 
the  home  of  the  Republican  candidate  for  governor.)  Stay  all 
night. 

Leave  Trenton  4: 15  a.m.,  October  20;  arrive  Gallatin  5:03  a.m. 
Just  short  drive  from  Gallatin  to  Jamesport  for  afternoon  speech 
and  back  to  Gallatin  for  evening  meeting.  (Judge  Farrington 
is  member  of  the  Springfield  Court  of  Appeals.) 

Leave  Gallatin  October  21,  5:03  a.m.,  via  Wabash,  arrive 
Kansas  City  7 :  50  a.m.  ;  leave  Kansas  City,  via  C.  &  A.,  10 : 00  a.m., 
arrive  Lexington  5:50  p.m.,  motor  to  Lexington  Junction;  leave 
Lexington  Junction  7:20  p.m.,  arrive  CarroUton  8:06  p.m.,  speak 
8:20  P.M.     (Lexington  Junction  to  CarroUton  A.T.  &  S.F.  RY.) 

Leave  CarroUton  12  noon  October  22,  via  Wabash,  arrive  Salis- 
bury 1:10  P.M.;  leave  Salisbury  2 : 05  p.m.,  arrive  Glasgow  2:55 
P.M.,  speak  3  P.M.     Motor  to  New  Franklin  and  speak  at  7 130  p.m. 

Leave  New  Franklin  8:05  a.m.,  October  23,  arrive  Columbia 
9: 24,  speak  2  p.m.  (This  is  seat  of  State  University  and  two  girls' 
colleges.)  Motor  to  Fulton  and  speak  at  7 :  30  p.m.  (Seat  of  three 
coUeges  and  two  state  institutions.  Settled  population,  decidedly 
Southern  people  and  largely  Kentuckians  by  birth  or  descent.) 

During  the  week  beginning  October  18,  it  appears,  she 
spoke  afternoon  and  evening  of  every  day,  every  speech 
in  a  different  place.  To  meet  the  engagements,  three 
mornings  she  took  trains  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  many  trips  meant  combination  train  and  motor  trips 
that  would  tire  the  strongest  and  most  vigorous  physique. 

After  the  election  she  turned  again  to  such  local 
problems  as  obtaining  the  county  appropriations  for  the 
sanatorium,  raising  the  money  for  feeding  the  children  in 


248         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

the  open-air  school,  estabHshing  co-operative  relations 
between  the  Civic  League  and  the  Community  Service, 
and  organizing  the  Kentucky  League  of  Women  Voters. 
On  November  27,  the  day  of  her  funeral,  women  from 
different  sections  of  the  state  assembled  in  response  to 
notices  she  had  sent  out  to  carry  forward  that  organiza- 
tion. Her  death  had  occurred  two  days  before,  Thanks- 
giving morning,  after  an  illness  of  forty  hours  during 
which  she  never  knew  the  blow  had  finally  fallen. 


.  ...  It  is  for  liSj  the  living,  to  be  dedicated  here  to 

the  unfinished  work It  is  rather  for  us  to  be 

here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining 


RESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED  AT  THE  TIME  OF  HER 

DEATH  BY  VARIOUS  SOCIAL  AND 

CIVIC  ORGANIZATIONS 

CIVIC  LEAGUE 

The  Civic  League  desires  to  give  some  brief  expression  to  its 
appreciation  of  the  value  of  the  services  of  the  late  Mrs.  Madeline 
McDowell  Breckinridge,  and  also  the  sense  of  personal  sorrow  and 
irreparable  loss  sustained  in  her  death. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  give  a  complete  list  of  her  activities 
for  the  good  of  the  community,  for  that  would  be  to  enumerate  all 
the  civic  and  social  organizations  of  the  city.  Neither  shall  we 
attempt  an  exhaustive  analysis  of  her  high  character  and  great 
ability,  richly  dowered  as  she  was  in  mind  and  heart ;  but  we  must 
give  some  simple  expression  of  our  sorrow,  and  pay  to  her  memory 
the  sincere  tribute  which  comes  from  our  hearts  as  we  realize  the 
great  gap  now  left  in  the  ranks  of  the  workers  for  the  common  good, 
and  as  we  remember  the  many  worthy  plans  that  will  now  be  with- 
out her  invaluable  aid.  We  think  with  dismay  of  attempting  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  the  Civic  League  without  the  inspiration  and 
help  of  that  bright,  cheery  presence,  that  playful  and  sparkling 
humor,  that  clear  vision  that  saw  the  right  path  and  chose  it  while 
others  were  perplexed  as  to  the  way,  that  high  and  dauntless  courage 
that  acknowledged  no  weariness  and  knew  no  defeat. 

It  may  not  be  generally  realized  to  be  the  fact,  but  it  is  our 
sober  conviction  that  to  Mrs.  Breckinridge  is  very  largely  due  the 
highly  developed  civic  consciousness  that  is  distinctive  of  Lexington 
and  that  shows  itself  in  so  many  lines  of  usefulness. 

The  city  of  Lexington  and  state  of  Kentucky  have  lost  a  great 
citizen  whose  life  by  its  noble  achievement  has  been  inwrought 
into  the  history  of  her  native  state,  and  who  now  takes  her  place 
among  the  Kentucky  Immortals,  that  long  roll  of  mighty  names 

249 


250        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

whose  deeds  illumine  the  pages  of  our  history  and  whose  fame 

is  secure. 

"She  has  gone  to 
Join  the  choir  invisible 
Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  brighter  by  their  presence 
Whose  music  is  the  gladness  of  the  world." 

She  will  be  long  remembered  for  her  many  and  great  civic 
achievements,  but  her  most  enduring  memorial  is  in  the  hearts  of 
those  who  loved  her,  who  were  helped  by  her  life  and  example  and 
who  mourn  the  passing  from  earth  of  her  brave  and  beautiful  spirit. 

BOARD   OF   CITY   COMMISSIONERS 

Resolved  by  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  the  city.  That  in 
the  death  of  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  the  city  of  Lexington  has 
lost  its  most  active  worker  for  the  welfare  of  this  community. 

It  was  due  to  Mrs.  Breckinridge's  indefatigable  energy  that 
Lincoln  Model  School  was  built.  She  was  one  of  many  who  devoted 
her  time  and  talents  to  the  location  and  completion  of  the  Tuber- 
culosis Sanatorium.  She  was  foremost  in  the  Civic  League  organi- 
zation and  playground  activities,  and  at  the  time  the  finger  of  God 
touched  her,  she  was  completing  arrangements  for  a  community 
service  center  at  Duncan  Park  for  the  coming  winter  months. 

Her  days  and  nights  were  filled  with  plans  for  the  betterment 
of  her  home  people  and  she  will  be  sadly  missed  by  the  poor  and 
needy  of  Lexington. 

She  was  an  active  worker  in  the  Woman's  Club  and  in  all  of 
our  charitable  organizations. 

Her  life  was  filled  with  kindly  deeds  and  thoughts  and  the 
vacant  chair  will  not  soon  be  filled. 

She  has  passed  over  the  river  and  rests  under  the  shade  of  the 
trees  with  her  loved  ones  that  have  gone  before. 

We  will  miss  her  kindly  greeting,  her  pleasant  smile,  her 
affable  manner,  but  we  must  realize  that,  when  we  recall  her  good 
deeds,  her  charity  toward  all  'mankind,  we  must  also  remember 
that  in  her  untimely  death  the  world  has  lost  a  blessing,  the  Christ 
has  gained  a  soul. 


RESOLUTIONS  251 

Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  spread  upon  the  minutes  of 
this  session  and  a  copy  be  sent  to  her  family  and  to  the  press. 

LEXINGTON  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 

The  members  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  city  of  Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky,  have  heard  with  profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of 
Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge,  and  they  feel  they  would  be  recreant  not 
only  to  their  own  feeling,  but  to  the  feeling  that  must  animate  every 
citizen  in  Lexington,  and  particularly  those  children  of  the  poor 
who  constantly  need  the  generous  interest  of  a  real  benefactor,  if 
they  failed  to  express  in  sorr^e  way  their  appreciation  of  her  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  education. 

The  law  creating  the  Board  of  Education  in  cities  of  the  Se  ond 
Class,  in  its  present  form,  is  due  more  to  her  than  perhaps  to 
any  other  person.  With  brilliant  ability  and  untiring  energy  she 
secured  its  passage  and  has  since  kept  in  constant  touch  with  the 
Board  and  its  activities.  The  needs  of  the  poorer  children,  the 
undernourished,  and  those  below  normal  standards  challenged  her 
especial  attention,  and  from  the  impulses  of  her  generous  heart  the 
Abraham  Lincoln  School  became  a  vision,  and  then  through  her 
indefatigable  efforts  a  reality.  Amid  the  exacting  demands  of  a 
life  engaged  in  every  worthy  public  enterprise,  she  yet  found  time 
to  watch,  as  a  mother  would  care  for  her  child,  over  the  needs  of 
this  school.  From  private  sources  she  constantly  assisted  this  work, 
though  it  had  been  turned  over  to  the  cRy,  and  there  are  now 
improvements  in  process  of  completion,  the  result  of  her  interest. 
In  her  death  the  Board  of  Education  has  lost  its  sanest  coun- 
selor and  its  most  active  and  unselfish  co-worker.  It  is  hereby 
directed  that  this  memorial  be  spread  upon  the  minutes  of  the 
Board  of  Education  and  that  a  copy  be  given  to  the  daily  press  of 
the  city,  and  that  an  engrossed  copy  be  sent  to  her  bereaved 
husband. 

R.  D.  Norwood,  President 
J.  N.  Elliott,  Vice-President 
Ida  W.  Harrison 
W.  C.  Bower 
C.  W.  Mathews 


252        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

PUBLIC  HEALTH  NURSING  ASSOCIATION 
In  the  death  of  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  the  Public  Health 
Nursing  Association  has  suffered  a  great  and  irreparable  loss. 
Through  her  efforts  the  association  was  first  established  in  this  com- 
munity and  to  her  untiring  energy  is  due  the  credit  for  all  the  good 
that  has  been  accomplished  by  it.  In  every  matter  pertaining  to 
its  work  and  objects  the  members  of  the  association  have  looked 
to  her  for  inspiration  and  guidance  and  therefore  in  her  death  they 
feel  that  they  have  been  deprived  of  a  leader  whose  wise  counsel 
will  be  sadly  missed  in  all  their  future  undertakings.  The  board 
of  directors  desire  to  record  this  simple  expression  of  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  splendid  work  of  this  noble  woman  and  to  the  mem- 
bers of  her  family  their  deepest  sympathy  in  the  great  loss  which 
they  have  sustained. 

Dr.  John  W.  Scott 
Mrs.  J.  T.  Tunis 
Mrs.  James  H.  Combs 
Dr.  S.  B.  Marks 
Mrs.  James  C.  Rogers 
Miss  Kate  Whittaker 
R.  J.  Colbert 

BLUE   GRASS   SANATORIUM 

It  is  with  a  grief  most  poignant  that  this  Board  is  met  to 
record  the  passing  of  her  who  was,  in  every  sense,  its  moving  spirit 
and  guiding  hand. 

No  keener  loss  could  be  sustained  by  this  institution,  no 
heavier  hand  laid  upon  the  cause  of  mercy  which  it  represents. 

Fragile  as  a  flower  in  body,  but  with  an  intellect  so  masterful 
as  to  cause  mere  physical  discomforts  to  bend  to  its  will,  she  gave 
freely  of  her  strength,  her  energy  and  her  life  that  others  might  be 
benefited  thereby;  nor  did  the  absorbing  nature  of  the  labor  of 
love  performed  here  prevent  her  from  being  to  other  institutions, 
to  other  causes  and  to  other  movements  for  civic  good,  that  which 
she  was  to  this  one. 

The  chronology  of  the  life  of  Madeline  McDowell  Breckin- 
ridge, the  mere  dates  of  her  birth  and  passing,  the  movements  for 
civic  good  inaugurated   by  her,  the  causes  fostered  and  works 


RESOLUTIONS  253 

accomplished  unto  their  full  fruition  will  be  written,  later,  by  those 
charged  with  recording  the  events  and  happenings  of  the  times 
blessed  by  her  existence. 

Linked,  by  ties  of  blood  and  marriage,  to  names  in  the  forefront 
of  affairs  of  state  and  nation,  she,  by  reason  of  her  great  under- 
standing, her  forceful,  magnetic  personality,  added  lustre  to  those 
names  and  has  recorded  for  those  left  behind  a  heritage  of  achieve- 
ment unsurpassed.    Now,  therefore,  in  sorrow,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  in  the  passing  of  Madeline  McDowell  Breckin- 
ridge this  institution  has  suffered  a  loss  irreparable  and  this  Board, 
which  it  represents,  its  most  valued  member,  one  whose  earnestness 
was  a  constant  inspiration  and  whose  devotion  was  a  beautiful 
example.    Be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  we  offer  in  grateful  memory  this  as  a  feeble 
expression  of  a  deep  and  affectionate  regard,  a  token  of  humble 
respect  and  grateful  appreciation  to  our  departed  co-worker. 

THE  KENTUCKY  TUBERCULOSIS   ASSOCIATIOxV 

Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Ken- 
tucky Tuberculosis  Association,  an  organizer  and  an  officer  of  the 
State  Tuberculosis  Commission  practically  throughout  its  exist- 
ence, and  the  founder  and  inspiration  of  the  Blue  Grass  Sanatorium 
for  Tuberculosis  at  Lexington,  Kentucky. 

Since  1906  Mrs.  Breckinridge  has  been  the  recognized  leader  of 
the  voluntary  fight  against  tuberculosis  by  the  people  of  Kentucky. 
Her  pen  and  words  drew  and  told  of  the  ravages  of  the  great  white 
plague,  and  carried  a  warning  to  the  citizenship  of  the  state  through 
its  officials  and  legislators  that  they  must  be  on  the  alert  against  a 
disease  which  caused  one  out  of  every  four  deaths  in  the  state  at 
the  time  she  began  her  crusade  against  it.  She  soon  came  to  realize 
that  tuberculosis  could  only  be  overcome  by  intelligent  education 
of  the  young  before  they  contracted  it.  She  was  thus  influential 
in  promoting  physical  education,  and  the  introduction  of  public 
health  nursing  into  the  country  districts  of  the  state  after  it  had 
proven  so  successful  in  the  cities. 

The  Kentucky  Tuberculosis  Association  in  session  assembled, 
realizing  the  serious  loss  which  Mrs.  Breckinridge's  death  means 


254        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

to  the  public  health  movement  in  Kentucky,  has  resolved  to  spread 
this  statement  on  its  minutes,  and  to  express  to  the  people  of  the 
state  a  determination  in  her  memory  to  proceed  in  popular  educa- 
tion with  a  view  to  still  further  diminish  the  sick  and  death  rate 
from  tuberculosis  and  other  preventable  diseases,  and  we  extend  to 
her  husband  and  others  our  sympathy  in  a  loss  which  is  to  them 
irreparable. 

C.  L.  Adler,  President 

J.  S.  Lock,  Executive  Secretary 

FAYETTE  COUNTY  BAR  ASSOCIATION 

The  death  of  Mrs.  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge,  wife 
of  Desha  Breckinridge,  a  member  of  this  bar,  -  marks  the  final 
earthly  passing  of  one  of  the  brightest  women  whose  labors 
have  adorned  the  pages  of  Kentucky  history.  She  was  a  woman 
whose  thought  was  one  of  service,  and  who  lived  in  the  con- 
stant hope  of  bringing  sunshine  into  the  lives  of  those  who  are 
unable  to  lift  themselves  from  the  lowering  clouds  which  surround 
them. 

Her  efforts  in  Lexington  in  behalf  of  Lincoln  School,  the 
system  of  playgrounds  operated  for  the  past  few  years,  and  in  the 
development  and  the  final  organization  of  the  Tuberculosis  Sana- 
torium as  well  as  in  all  other  means  by  which  those  not  blessed  with 
the  better  things  of  life  are  brought  in  contact  with  them,  have  been 
before  the  public  from  day  to  day  for  many  years. 

The  universal  sorrow  resulting  from  the  announcement  of  the 
death  of  this  very  remarkable  woman  speaks  for  the  friends  she 
made,  the  homes  she  blessed,  and  the  good  works  she  constantly 
promulgated  and  constructed. 

She  was  of  a  line  of  distinguished  people,  and  her  great- 
grandfather was  a  leading  statesman  of  his  time,  as  well  as  one 
of  the  great  lawyers  of  the  country.  She  was  the  wife  of  a  member 
of  this  bar,  who  also  was  of  a  line  of  great  statesmen  and  lawyers, 
and  the  Bar  of  Fayette  County  honors  itself  in  presenting  this 
memorial  of  her. 

When  we  contemplate  the  going  out  from  our  lives  and  time  of 
those  who  have  wrought  well  in  the  quarries  of  human  endeavor. 


RESOLUTIONS  255 

we  are  brought  to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  somewhere  in  the 
nebulous,  unknown,  but  indisputable  future,  somewhere  in  the 
anticipated  realm  of  space,  where  all  perfection  has  emerged  from 
human  imperfection,  those  who  have  passed  out  from  earthly  asso- 
ciation will  meet  again. 

We  have  been  taught  to  believe  that  friends  and  kinsmen  are 
laid  away  from  our  sight,  to  be  seen  again  only  in  some  ethereal 
clime,  whose  balm  and  blessing  are  eternal,  and  where  the  realiza- 
tion of  all  our  dreams  and  desires  shall  materialize  at  the  pinnacle 
of  spiritual  happiness. 

We  know  that  out  of  the  clouds  and  dreariness  of  fatuous 
thought,  clothed  with  the  gloom  of  doubt  and  fear  and  dogma,  will 
spring  the  verity  of  scientific  reality,  when  tired  nature  awakes  to 
greet  the  golden  sun  of  heaven,  and  man,  created  in  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God,  becomes  aware  of  his  spiritual  selfhood,  and  turns 
with  sturdy  resolution  to  his  Creator  in  gratitude  and  praise. 

Those  who  knew  Mrs.  Breckinridge  appreciate  the  great  hospi- 
tality of  her  charitable  mind  and  will  always  recognize  the  kindli- 
ness of  spirit  which  actuated  her  labors  of  love  and  left  her  name 
and  personality  as  an  enduring  memory.  We  shall  know  that  the 
thought  behind  her  unselfish  but  successful  efforts  in  behalf  of  others 
was  the  thought  of  inherent  nobility  and  the  demonstration  of  the 
great  truth  that  we  are  indeed  our  brothers'  keepers.  Therefore, 
be  it 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Mrs.  Breckinridge,  Lexington 
has  lost  one  of  its  most  progressive  citizens,  her  husband  and  family 
a  beloved  wife  and  sister,  and  the  children  of  Lexington  a  true  and 
loving  friend. 

Resolved,  That  the  Bar  of  Fayette  County  hereby  tenders  to 
Mr.  Breckinridge  its  sincere  sympathy  in  his  great  loss. 

Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  spread  at  large  upon  the 
records  of  this  Court,  and  that  copies  be  furnished  to  the  local 
newspapers. 

W.  P.  Kimball 
J.  N.  Elliott 
E.  L.  Hutchinson 
G.  Allison  Holland 
George  R.  Hunt 


256        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

ASSOCIATED    CHARITIES 

Mrs.  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge  was  the  founder  of  the 
Associated  Charities  work  as  it  is  now  conducted.  In  1901  she 
reorganized  the  institution  existing  at  that  time  and  introduced 
into  Lexington  the  modern  idea  of  relief  and  social  welfare  work. 
Her  interest  in  the  organization  has  been  unfailing  from  its  begin- 
ning, on  its  present  basis.  She  has  served  continuously  on  the 
board  of  directors,  and  in  1916,  in  recognition  of  her  services,  she 
was  elected  a  life  member. 

To  Mrs.  Breckinridge  more  than  any  other  individual  is  due 
the  continued  existence  and  development  of  the  work  that  was 
begun  under  her  leadership.  On  more  than  one  occasion,  when  the 
task  of  raising  the  necessary  funds  for  its  support  has  seemed  hope- 
less, her  organizing  capacity,  her  energy,  her  influence  and  her  own 
generosity  have  saved  the  institution. 

The  officers  and  board  of  directors  of  this  institution  had 
ample  opportunity  to  know  and  appreciate  Mrs.  Breckinridge's 
great  desire  to  have  Lexington  in  the  front  rank  of  American  cities 
in  its  social  welfare  activities,  and  of  her  tireless  and  unselfish 
efforts  to  this  end. 

We  record  her  death  in  profound  sorrow  for  the  passing  of  the 
board's  most  serviceable  member  and  in  full  recognition  of  the 
greater  difficulties  her  death  imposes  upon  us  in  the  performance 
of  our  duties.  Almost  with  her  last  hours  she  was  planning  for  the 
promotion  of  the  work  of  the  Associated  Charities.  While  Lexing- 
ton has  lost  her  first  citizen  and  the  city  poor  and  unfortunate  their 
best  friend,  we  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the  hope  and  belief 
that  the  example  of  her  life  will  be  a  source  of  inspiration  for  the 
entire  community. 

We  extend  our  deepest  sympathy  to  the  members  of  her  family 
and  to  all  of  those  who  share  with  us  a  keen  sense  of  the  loss  we  have 
all  sustained. 

George  B.  Carey 
c.  k.  morrell 
Mrs.  Wm.  T.  Schnaufer 
Mrs.  Allie  H.  Manning 
Charles  I.  Stewart 


RESOLUTIONS  257 

LEXINGTON  HERALD  STAFF 

Resolvedy  That  in  the  death  of  Mrs.  Madehne  McDowell 
Breckinridge,  the  Herald  employes  have  lost  a  most  valuable 
co-worker,  who,  despite  her  varied  activities,  found  time  to  make 
important  contributions  to  the  editorial  and  news  columns  of  the 
Herald  and  whose  work  was  a  most  important  factor  in  the  Herald's 
upbuilding. 

In  expressing  our  own  keen  sense  of  the  loss  we  have  sustained 
as  an  organization,  we  desire  to  express  our  deepest  sympathy  for 
Mr.  Breckinridge  in  the  irreparable  loss  he  has  suffered. 

Miss  Mary  Bryan 
Zac  Carter 
J.  L.  Naylor 

TYPOGRAPHIC.\L  UNION  CHAPEL  OF  THE  LEXINGTON  HERALD 
The  news  of  the  irreparable  loss  sustained  by  the  community 
as  a  whole  by  the  sudden  and  untimely  death  of  Mrs.  Breckin- 
ridge came  as  a  distinct  shock  to  the  members  of  the  Herald 
composing  room,  and  on  behalf  of  the  Chapel  we  wish  to  express 
our  deep  regret  and  sincere  sympathy. 

Her  life's  story  is  better  told  by  the  permanent  and  sub- 
stantial monuments  erected  to  her  by  her  energy  and  untiring 
efforts  devoted  to  social,  educational  and  healthful  betterment  of 
the  community  in  which  she  lived,  and  the  fruits  of  her  successful 
undertakings  will  give  grateful  cause  to  the  community  to  ever 
cherish  the  memory  of  her.    Her  life  was  worth  while. 

Sincerely, 

B.  C.  Sneadaker 

W.  H.  LOWRY 

Walter  Riddell 
Committee 

LEXINGTON  COUNCIL  NO.  24,  JUNIOR  ORDER   UNITED 
AMERICAN  MECHANICS 

Whereas,  This  order  teaches  as  one  of  its  cardinal  principles 
patriotism,  love  of  country;  and 

Whereas,  Lexington  has  lost  in  the  death  of  Mrs.  Madeline 
McDowell  Breckinridge  one  of  its  most  patriotic  and  useful  citizens; 
therefore,  be  it 


258        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Resolved  by  the  Lexington  Council  No.  24,  Junior  Order  United 
American  Mechanics,  That  we  share  in  the  general  public  sorrow 
over  the  untimely  end  of  this  noble  and  useful  woman; 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  bereaved  husband  our  sincere 
and  heartfelt  sympathy  in  his  loss,  and  to  the  poor  children  of  the 
city  and  county,  the  sick  and  helpless,  of  whom  she  was  ever  the 
benefactor,  we  extend  sympathy  in  the  loss  of  a  friend  it  will  be 
difficult  to  replace; 

Resolved,  That  we  spread  this  resolution  upon  the  minutes  of 
our  Council  as  a  permanent  tribute  to  Mrs.  Breckinridge's  work  as 
a  citizen  for  this  community;  that  a  copy  be  sent  to  the  family 
and  published  in  the  local  press. 

E.  F.  Wiley,  Councilor 

J.  F.  Halley,  Recording  Secretary 

FAYETTE  HOME  TELEPHONE   COMPANY 

The  officers  and  directors  of  the  Fayette  Telephone  Company 
have  learned  with  deep  regret  and  sorrow  of  the  death  of  the  wife 
of  their  associate,  Desha  Breckinridge,  and  adopt  this  memorial  of 
their  appreciation  of  her  character  and  services. 

So  many  tributes  have  been  paid  to  the  life  and  work  of  Mrs. 
Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge,  from  so  many  different  sources, 
that  it  seems  impossible  to  add  anything  to  the  wealth  of  encomium 
which  has  been  heaped  upon  her  memory.  All  recognize  the  great 
loss  that  the  community  has  sustained  in  the  cessation  of  her 
individual  activities,  but  her  death  is  of  even  more  serious  conse- 
quence in  that  it  deprives  us  of  her  leadership,  the  inspiration  of  her 
genius,  the  driving  force  of  her  energy  and  enthusiasm.  In  the 
many  causes  which  enlisted  her  interest  she  spared  neither  herself 
nor  her  associates.  She  knew  the  lethargy  which  so  easily  dis- 
courages the  ordinary  worker  in  benevolent  and  social  movements, 
and  made  it  her  object  to  sustain  the  interest  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
workers  until  the  work  was  done.  Many  enterprises  of  great  value 
to  this  community  owe  their  success  to  this  quality  of  leadership 
which  she  possessed  to  such  a  pre-eminent  degree. 

The  vigor  of  her  mind,  the  clearness  of  her  thought,  the  fluency 
and  precision  of  her  speech,  rare  as  are  such  qualities,  were  not 


RESOLUTIONS  259 

so  remarkable  as  the  consecration  and  dedication  of  her  life  to  the 
service  of  the  weak,  the  unfortunate,  and  the  oppressed.  Multi- 
tudes of  these  arise  and  call  her  blessed  and  many  in  the  years  to 
come  will  owe  their  relief  from  suffering,  their  opportunities  and 
their  privileges  to  the  institutions  she  established  and  to  the  forces 
she  set  in  motion,  and  thus  her  works  do  follow  her. 

The  community  honors  itself  in  honoring  this  noble  woman. 
We  weep  not  for  her,  because  we  know  she  would  have  been  the 
first  to  subscribe  to  the  sentiment: 

"Whether  on  the  scaffold  high,  or  in  the  battle's  van. 
The  noblest  place  for  man  to  die  is  where  he  dies  for  man. 

"  But  men  are  we,  and  must  grieve  when 
That  which  once  was  great  is  passed  away." 

And  to  those  united  to  her  by  those  tender  ties  of  blood  and 
love,  we  extend  our  sincere  and  heartfelt  sympathy. 

COLORED   PEOPLE  OF  LEXINGTON 

A  word  of  condolence  and  testimony  from  colored  people, 
friends  who  knew  Mrs.  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge,  and 
would  have  it  known  that  she  was  a  friend  indeed  and  a  benefactor 
to  our  race. 

As  president  of  the  Civic  League  it  was  through  her  liberality 
and  magnanimity  that  there  was  shared  with  the  colored  people 
every  advance  that  was  adopted  for  the  general  good.  It  was 
through  her  efforts  and  to  her  credit  largely  that  the  colored  people 
here  have  domestic  science  taught  in  their  schools.  It  was  through 
her  that  they  have  the  playgrounds,  because  prior  to  opening  up 
Douglass  Park  she  secured  the  use  of  Chandler  Campus  and 
employed  a  teacher  for  the  first  playground  for  colored  children. 

In  the  administration  of  the  Associated  Charities  and  the 
tuberculosis  hospital  she  saw  to  it  that  the  colored  people  were 
given  equal  and  adequate  care  and  attention. 

Hers  was  a  life  of  service  and  uplift.  It  was  her  life's  joy  to 
be  kind  to  those  about  her,"  even  though  they  were  in  her  employ. 

The  colored  people  have  lost  in  her  passing  a  true  friend 
indeed,  unselfish  and  unprejudiced,  whose  sympathies  went  out  to 
all  without  regard  to  race  or  color. 


26o         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

WOMAN'S   CLUB    OF   CENTRAL    KENTUCKY 

"The  wine  of  life  is  oozing  drop  by  drop, 
The  leaves  of  life  are  falling  one  by  one." 

The  whole  race  of  man  stands  condemned  before  a  bar  from 
whose  decree  there  are  no  appeals.  All  that  breathe  must  alike 
await  the  inevitable  hour  when  that  which  we  call  life  must  yield 
to  cold  obstruction.  Just  as  light  in  the  beginning  was  born  out 
of  darkness,  and  in  the  moment  of  eclipse  must  thither  return,  so 
runneth  the  course  of  man. 

The  finger  that  may  cause  the  pulse  to  cease  its  beatings,  and 
the  brain  to  seek  repose  in  the  long  night  of  oblivion,  has  touched 
and  forever  stilled  one  whom,  in  Ufe,  we  loved,  and  whose  memory, 
dead,  we  will  ever  revere.  • 

The  name  she  bore  will  be  perpetuated  in  the  history  of  the 
state  and  the  nation  as  full  worthy  a  place  among  those  whose 
efforts  have  been  rewarded  with  success,  and  there  are  untold 
thousands  unto  whom  she  ministered  in  whose  hearts  her  name  will 
be  held  in  sacred  reverence. 

She  was  one  of  the  few,  the  very  few,  of  whom  it  might  in 
truth  be  said  that  in  action  she  found  rest  and  in  labor  recreation. 
Least  of  all  persons  did  she  look  forward  to  the  coming  of  a  time 
when  she  might  crown  with  ease  a  life  of  toil.  Life  to  her  would 
have  been  a  dreary  waste  without  the  thrill  of  action.  Its  chiefest 
charm  lay  in  making  each  new  effort  nobler  than  the  last — each 
failure  the  stepping-stone  to  success. 

Though  cast  in  a  fragile  form  hers  was  an  heroic  mold. 
Possessed  of  a  vision  vouchsafed  to  but  few,  it  was  never  a  vision 
that  might  not  take  on  form  and  being;  endowed  with  an  idealism 
of  the  highest  order,  her  idealities  became  in  the  end  ideal  realisms. 
A  world  peopled  with  varied  types  meant  to  her  an  obligation  to 
bring  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number.  Little  wonder  then 
that  humanity,  with  all  its  perplexities,  all  its  unsolved  problems, 
should  have  been  the  master  passion  with  one  who  had  an  absorbing 
interest  in  everything  that  concerned  man,  woman,  or  child.  Little 
wonder  that  to  one  so  impassioned  life  never  seemed  so  full,  effort 
never  so  inviting,  as  when  she  felt  the  thrill  of  action,  waged  in 
behalf  of  those  who  stood  on  the  outer  fringe  of  the  moving  throng, 


RESOLUTIONS  261 

friendless  and  unaided.    Like  the  old  Scotch  chieftain,  she  could 
always  be  found  where  the  arrows  fell  thickest. 

Living,  her  life  was  a  benediction,  dead,  may  it  be  to  us,  one 
and  all,  an  inspiration.  May  we  hold  aloft  the  torch  which  she 
bore,  remembering  always  life's  richest  rewards  come  to  those  who 
best  succeed  in  suppressing  self. 

In  the  death  of  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge  the  Woman's 
Club  of  Central  Kentucky  has  lost  its  most  distinguished  member. 
In  counsel  always  wise,  in  attachment  always  loyal,  in  help  always 
ready.  The  bow  of  Ulysses  hangs  upon  the  wall  with  no  one  left 
that  can  bend  it. 

Therefore,  be  it  now 

Resolved,  That  we  will  ever  cherish  as  a  priceless  heritage,  the 
memory  of  our  departed  member;  that  we  will  rededicate  ourselves 
to  the  work  which  was  the  soul  of  her  being,  and  that  we  will  hold 
in  grateful  remembrance  the  work  which  she  accomplished  in  our 
behalf  and  in  behalf  of  afflicted  humanity. 

Resolved,  further.  That  these  resolutions  be  spread  at  large 
upon  the  records  of  this  organization,  that  a  copy  be  furnished  to 
the  daily  papers  of  the  city  and  to  the  bereaved  family  unto  whom 
she  was  a  light  and  a  life. 

Louise  Brownell  Berryman 
Sarah  M 'Do well  Preston 
Mary  Gratz  Morton 
-  Ida  Withers  Harrison 
Mary  Neville 
Isabel  Clay 
Mary  Shelby 
Mabel  Sawyer  M'Vey 

BOARD    OF    THE    KENTUCKY    EQUAL    RIGHTS    ASSOCIATION 

AND    COMMITTEE    FOR    ORGANIZATION    OF    THE 

KENTUCKY  LEAGUE  OF  WOMEN  VOTERS 

It  is  with  peculiar  sense  of  loss  and  sorrow  that  the  Board  of 
the  Kentucky  Equal  Rights  Association  and  the  Committee  for 
Organization  of  the  Kentucky  League  of  Women  Voters  meet  to 
carry  out  their  work  without  their  great  leader,  Mrs.  Desha 
Breckinridge. 


262         MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

Fully  realizing  that  it  was  in  large  measure  through  her 
indomitable  courage  and  energy  that  the  women  of  this  state  and 
nation  have  been  granted  the  right  to  take  part  directly  in  the 
realization  of  the  ideals  of  a  democratic  government,  we  feel  an 
added  sense  of  responsibility  in  achieving  the  results  which  she  has 
made  possible. 

We  cannot  believe  that  her  memory  will  ever  die.  For,  like 
the  ideal  citizen  of  ancient  Athens,  the  story  of  her  life  will  not  only 
be  given  on  stone  over  her  native  earth,  but  will  live  on  for  endless 
generations,  without  visible  symbol  woven  into  the  staff  of  other 
people's  lives. 

She  leaves  us  the  legacy  of  a  great  accomplishment  and  the 
duty  to  carry  on.  She  is  to  us  a  cherished  memory  and  a  beacon 
light. 

Mrs.  Herbert  Mengel,  Louisville 
Mrs.  Ida  W.  Harrison,  Lexington 
Mrs.  John  G.  South,  Frankfort 
Miss  Alice  Lloyd,  Maysville 
Mrs.  J.  B.  Judah,  Louisville 
•     Mrs.  Samuel  M.  Wilson,  Lexington 
Mrs.  Charles  Firth,  Covington 
Mrs.  Frank  McVey,  Lexington 
Miss  Mary  Bronaugh,  Hopkinsville 
Miss  Mary  Scrugham,  Lexington 

EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  FAYETTE  COUNTY 
LEAGUE  OF  WOMEN  VOTERS 

We,  the  Fayette  County  League  of  Women  Voters,  filled  with 
a  sense  of  personal  bereavement  in  the  passing  of  our  beloved 
leader  and  co-worker,  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge,  desire  to 
express  to  her  husband  and  to  her  family  our  sympathy  in  their  pro- 
found grief  and  more  intimate  loss. 

We  further  desire  to  voice  the  feeling  of  those  who  worked 
with  her,  that  she  by  her  vision  and  inspiration  brought  the  Fay- 
ette Equal  Rights  Association  into  its  place  of  leadership  in  the 
state.  By  her  wise  guidance,  the  women  of  her  community  were 
prepared  for  the  exercise  of  suffrage  when  it  was  granted. 


RESOLUTIONS  263 

Her  brave  spirit  was  like  a  soaring  lambent  flame,  burning 
brightest  in  darkness,  and  as  it  shone  on  others,  they,  too,  caught 
the  rare  contagion  and  followed  her  unflagging,  undismayed,  until 
the  goal  was  won. 

She  was  a  leader  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word.  She  had 
that  high  courage  which  never  knew  the  meaning  of  defeat;  the 
words  of  the  great  poet  might  be  truly  said  of  her: 

"One  who  never  turned  her  back,  but  marched  breast  forward, 
Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 
Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would 

triumph; 
Held,  we  fall  to  rise,  our  battles  to  fight  better. 
Sleep  to  wake." 

Mrs.  Frank  L.  McVey 
Mrs.  Jere  R.  Morton 
Mrs.  Samuel  M.  Wilson 
Mrs.  C.  B.  Lowry 
Mrs.  Charles  J.  Smith 

Executive  Committee  of  Fayette 
County  League  of  Women 
Voters 

'       BOURBON  COUNTY  WOMAN'S  CLUB 

In  the  death  of  Mrs.  Desha  Breckinridge,  the  club  women  of 
Bourbon  County  have  sustained  an  irreparable  loss. 

Her  brilliant  mind,  her  well-balanced  judgment,  her  inspiring 
presence  has  been  freely  given  us. 

Not  an  idle  moment  was  hers — the  wonder  was  that  so  frail  a 
body  could  endure  the  strain  she  put  upon  it,  for  she  never  refused 
a  call  to  service  except  for  conflicting  dates. 

Who  can  number  the  stars  in  her  crown  ? 

KENTUCKY  FEDERATION  OF  WOMEN'S  CLUBS' 

When  Madeline  McDowell  Breckinridge  passed  into  a  larger 
life  last  Thanksgiving  Day,  Kentucky  lost  a  great  daughter,  the 

'Annual  Meeting,  May  12,  1921. 


264        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

cause  that  lacked  assistance  a  great  leader,  the  Kentucky  Federa- 
tion an  earnest  advocate  and  the  world  an  inspired  spirit.  As  a 
token  of  remembrance  and  in  token  of  our  appreciation  of  her 
unselfish  work,  we  recommend  the  giving  of  her  name  to  an  annual 
community  service  meeting  which  shall  be  included  in  the  Fed- 
eration program.  Thus  will  the  coming  generation  know  and 
understand  our  wish  to  honor  this  heroic  woman  who  gave  her 
best  to  the  world. 


B 

SHE  IS  DEAD' 

She  is  dead.  Memory  will  bring  to  different  hearts  different 
pictures  of  her:  a  child,  all  eyes  and  legs,  climbing  upon  her  fa  therms 
horse  to  ride  with  him  over  the  farm,  seeking  and  giving  companion- 
ship to  him  to  whom  difference  of  age  made  no  difference;  a  girl 
with  eyes  that  still  seemed  bigger  than  her  body,  and  long  legs 
below  her  skirts,  who  romped  with  boy  and  girl,  and  led  in  chase 
and  in  study  at  the  old  schoolhouse,  and  over  the  hills  around  the 
pond  on  the  Woodlake  Farm. 

And  then,  grown  taller,  with  soft  brown  hair,  she  came  to  a 
new  town  and  made  new  friends;  still  romped  and  played  and 
danced;  the  best  tennis  player,  the  most  tireless  dancer,  the  most 
daring  rider.  And  then  memory  brings  the  picture  of  an  accident, 
and  lameness  came,  and  there  was  no  more  tennis,  and  no  more 
dancing,  and  she  drove  instead  of  rode. 

There  was  never  complaint,  never  a  suggestion  of  loss.  Mem- 
ory shows  tennis  parties  where  others  played  and  she  looked  on; 
and  dancing  parties  where  she  was  hostess,  but  did  not  dance;  and 
riding  parties  and  rabbit  hunts  where  she  drove  and  others  rode. 
But  none  might  know  that  she  would  rather  ride  than  drive, 
rather  dance  than  sit,  rather  play  tennis  than  serve  tea. 

She  made  her  life  full.  There  were  things  to  learn  and  books 
to  read  and  older  persons  to  amuse.  The  pictures  of  those  days 
are  full  of  duties  done,  full  of  pleasures  given  and  shared,  the  days 
of  girlhood,  and  joyous  house  parties,  when  the  home  and  the 
woods  where  the  long  shadows  fell  rang  with  laughter  and  with 
song;  with  the  tinkle  of  the  guitar  and  the  music  of  the  voice. 
And  in  the  house  parties,  among  the  guests  that  came,  there  were 
many  kinds — the  poet  and  the  artist  and  the  story  teller;  some  of 
wealth,  some  without  wealth;  some  whose  people  had  won  posi- 
tion— some  who  made  their  own  position.     It  was  not  by  rank,  nor 

'From  the  Lexington  Herald,  November  28,  1920. 

265 


266        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 

wealth,  nor  by  reason  of  what  others  had  done  that  she  chose 
her  friends. 

And  then,  grown  to  womanhood,  she  left  the  stately  home 
where  love  surrounded  and  luxury  attended  her  and  went  to  one 
room  to  make  a  home  for  him  she  crowned  with  the  glory  of  her 
love.  And  there  she  worked  and  studied  and  gave  of  herself.  She 
read  at  night  that  she  might  write  in  the  day;  she  thought  at 
night  that  she  might  work  in  the  day,  and  she  wrote  and  worked 
for  others,  never  for  herself. 

Memory  paints  the  picture  of  her  who  never  asked  a  favor  for 
herself  in  all  her  Kfe,  going  up  and  down  the  streets  to  ask  the  gift 
of  a  half  dollar,  or  a  dollar,  to  help  to  make  play  places  for  children 
who  had  no  place  to  play.  Timid,  shrinking,  reserved,  she  forgot 
herself,  forgot  bodily  ills,  physical  handicap,  when  her  heart  and 
her  brain  told  her  there  was  an  opportunity  to  give  joy  and  render 
service  to  others. 

The  first  playgrounds  were  started;  others  helped,  and  today 
there  are  men  and  women  who  as  boys  and  girls  got  their  only  play 
on  these  grounds.  From  the  playgrounds  there  grew  the  little 
school  in  which  the  children  could  be  taught  to  be  clean — taught 
to  be  independent.  Others  helped — and  the  Lincoln  School  became 
a  reality. 

It  was  revealed  to  her  that  the  school  system  was  not  good; 
nights  were  spent  in  study  of  the  systems  of  other  states;  men  who 
had  devoted  their  Uves  to  the  law  assisted;  a  new  school  law  was 
drafted  and  enacted,  and  Kentucky  took  rank  with  the  forward- 
looking  states — the  states  that  give  opportunity  to  their  children 
who  seek  education — the  states  that  made  their  children  who  do 
not  seek  education  go  to  school. 

Many  children  were  underfed  and  some  suffered  from  in- 
herited weakness,  some  from  tuberculosis.  She  who  loved  to 
play,  she  who  loved  the  light,  the  gay,  spent  hours  and  days  and 
weeks  in  study  and  in  work.  And  a  law  was  framed  to  create  a 
commission  to  fight  tuberculosis,  and  an  institution  was  founded 
that  the  people  of  the  city  and  the  county  she  loved  with  a  passion- 
ate love  might  be  taught  and  cured.  Others  helped — there  were 
always  loving  ones  who  helped,  she  always  said  did  far  more  than 


APPENDIX  267 

did  she,  for  she  never  counted  what  she  did,  and  always  counted 
what  others  did. 

She  could  not  demand — she  could  only  plead  to  fiscal  court,  or 
city  council,  or  legislature;  she  could  go  only  as  a  supplicant, 
without  the  power  to  vote.  And  she  and  the  consecrated  women 
who  worked  with  her,  some  whom  she  led,  some  of  whom  she  fol- 
lowed, could  only  ask — not  command.  And  so  she  strove  that  suf- 
frage be  given  to  women,  that  women  who  suffer,  who  share  equal 
burdens,  who  bear  equal  sorrows,  who  pay  equal  taxes,  might  have 
a  voice  in  electing  the  men  who  decide  what  laws  shall  be  passed 
and  how  their  money  be  spent. 

With  a  vision  hot  bounded  by  state  lines,  she  recognized  that 
suffrage  must  come  to  all  women  before  it  could  come  to  the  women 
of  Kentucky  to  be  the  most  effective  instrument  to  accomplish 
the  purposes  she  wanted  to  accomphsh.  And  so  she  welcomed 
the  opportunity  to  help  in  other  states.  No  trip  was  too  long, 
no  task  too  onerous  for  her  to  undertake  to  help  secure  for  women 
the  instrument  she  believed  would  help  humanity. 

These  are  only  some  of  the  pictures  that  memory  paints  to 
different  hearts  today.  To  some  it  will  bring  a  picture  of  never 
failing,  evdr  thoughtful  courtesy  and  helpful  sympathy;  of  a  boy 
helped  through  college;  of  a  girl  helped  to  health;  of  a  woman 
helped  over  the  rough  places  until  hope  and  strength  should  triumph 
over  weakness.  And  in  all  the  years  there  will  be  no  picture  of 
selfish  thought;  no  picture  of  a  mean  act;  no  picture  of  an  unkind 
word.  She  knew  sorrow,  she  knew  weariness,  she  knew  pain.  She 
never  knew  fear,  nor  envy,  nor  malice. 

And  the  last  picture  is  of  Tuesday,  as  days  are  counted  by  the 
calendar,  only  four  days  ago.  After  the  noon  hour  she  telephoned 
about  Thanksgiving  dinner,  with  the  thought  and  desire  to  fill  the 
last  place  the  table  would  hold;  and  then  again  to  know  whether 
the  children  would  want  dinner  early  that  they  might  go  to  the 
football  game.  And  then  she  went  to  get  some  things  to  give 
away,  and  God's  finger  touched  her,  and  she  is  dead. 

Today  she  rests  by  the  side  of  him  who  held  her  as  a  child 
before  him  on  his  horse,  beside  her  who  through  all  her  life  she 
loved  with  an  unspeakable  love.    Her  body  is  at  rest. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abraham  Lincoln  School,  19,  51,  60, 
61,  71,  72,  74,  75,  77,  91-124; 
social  activities  of,  73,  78,  119,  131, 
230.    See  0/50. Open-air  school 

Addams,  Jane,  47,  92,  93,  lor,  113, 
123,  244 

Allen,  Hon.  John  R.,  79,  204 

Anemic  children,  107,  114,  131 

Anthony  Amendment,  214,  220,  221, 
231 

Anti-Tuberculosis  Society,  57,  138 

"Ashland,"  11-14, 16,  19,47,  238,  239 

Ashland,  the  city  of,  235 

Associated  Charities  of  Lexington, 
48,  127,  130,  156-81,  256;  founding 
of,  42,  156;  income  of,  162,  170, 
177;  purposes  of,  161 

"Aunt  Mag."  See  McDowell,  Mag- 
dalen Harvey 

Band  concerts,  57,  72 

Bathing  pool  for  colored  children,  75 

Beattyville,  29,  31 

Beckham,  Governor,  39,  127 

Beggars,  160,  170 

Bennett,  Mrs.  Mary  Clay,  200 

Blue   Grass   Sanatorium,   Lexington. 

See  Fayette   County  Tuberculosis 

Sanatorium 
Bolivar,  Simon,  6 
Bradley,  Governor  Wm.  D.,  200 
Brandeis,  Albert  A.,  85 
Breckinridge,  Desha,  xii,  24, 45,  223 
Breckinridge,  Henry  S.,  69 
Breckinridge,  Colonel  W.  C.  P.,  24,  33 
Brown,  John  Young,  38 
Brown,  Margaret,  62 
Bullock,  Mrs.  Thomas  S.,  xii,  10,  28, 47 
Burials,  cost  of,  166 

Camden,  Mrs.  Johnson,  20 
Camden,  Tevis,  20,  141,  143,  '44 


Camp  Stanley,  76,  1 16,  230 

Caj)en,  O.  B.,  "Country  Homes  of 

Famous  Americans,"  quoted,  12 
Catt,  Mrs.,  229 

Charities.    See  Associated  Charities 
Charity:    funds,  42,   157;    organiza- 
tion movement,  159,  181 
Charles,  Mrs.  S.  A.,  158,  160 
Chattel-loan  agencies,  163-66 
Child-labor  legislation,  47,  53,  58,  74, 

80,  83,  84,  192 
Child  welfare,  x,  48,  55,  60,  80-90,  18O 
Children,  legislative  program  for,  82. 
See  also  Colored  children;    Delin- 
quent  children;     Dependent    chil- 
dren;   Neglected  children;   Truant 
children 
Children's  Building  at  the  Blue  Grass 

Sanatorium,  136,  137,  237 
Christmas  dinners  for  the  poor,  i6o, 

171,  174 
Church  activities,  28 
Citizenship,  education  for,  48,  238 
City  improvement,  xi,  52,  60 
City  Missionary  Society,  i68 
City  spring-cleaning  day,  52,  60 
Civic  League,  42,  104,  108,  109,  131, 
182,    189,    242;    activities,   45-79; 
campaign  against  tuberculosis,  126; 
constitution,  46;   finances,  77;  and 
Lincoln  School,  91-124;  and  social 
legislation,  80-90;  resolutions,  249; 
war  activities,  75 
Civic  League  of  Fayette  Cotmty,  77 
Clay,  Henry,  4-7,  11,  12,  16,  22,  27, 

205 
Clay,  Colonel  Henry,  Jr.,  8,  18 
Clay,  Laura,  34,  200,  206,  215 
Clay,  S.  H.,  93 
Cloud,  Miss  Betsy,  92,  104,  112,  113, 

122 
Collins,  R.  H.,  History  of  Kentucky, 
quoted,  7 


271 


272 


MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 


Colored  children,  53,  54,  75,  76 

Colored  people  of  Lexington,  resolu- 
tions of,  54,  259 

Colored  population,  142 

Colored  schools,  67,  72,  76,  83,  217 

Colored  voters,  184,  217 

Combs,  Thomas  A.,  xi,  57,  59,  79, 
135 

Commercial  Club  of  Lexington,  74,  93 

Commercialized  vice,  70 

Community  Service  Incorporated,  76 

Community  singing  in  colored  schools, 
76 

Compulsor>'  school  attendance  law, 
53,  58,  80,  82,  192 

Congressional  Committee,  National 
American  Suffrage  Association,  207, 
■  220 

Congressional  Union,  214,  218,  220 

County  school  board  law,  94 

Crittenden,  John  J.,  11 

Dangerfield,  Elizabeth,  19,  25,  30 

Dangerfield,  Henderson.  See  Nor- 
man, Mrs.  Henderson  Dangerfield 

Davis'  Addition.     See  Irishtown 

Deaf  children,  80 

Delinquent  children,  54,  80,  85,  88 

Denison,  Edward,  170 

Dependent  children,  85 

Domestic  science,  158,  183 

"Drives,"  179;  for  Lincoln  School, 
93;  for  Tuberculosis  Sanatorium, 
137 

Dudley,  Mrs.  Maria  Hunt,  28,  31 

Duncan,  Mayor  Henry  T.,  78,  157 

Duncan  Park,  50,  72,  73 

Dye  Fund,  Anthony,  78,  131 

Educational  Commission,  192 
Election  Law,  Goebel,  37 

Fayette  County  Tuberculosis  Sana- 
torium, 135,  237,  252 

Fayette  Equal  Rights  Association, 
215,  262 


Fayette  Tuberculosis  Association,  130, 

134 
Federal  amendment,  x,  198,  201,  214, 

215 

Flexner,  Bernard,  81,  85,  141 
Fortnightly  Club  of  Lexington,   21, 

182,  188 
Fox,  John,  Jr.,  19 
Frazer,  Bessie,-  26 
Frazer,  Oliver,  27 
Freeman,  C.  C,  65,  66 

Garden  seeds,  distribution  of,  52,  54 
General     Federation     of     Women's 

Clubs,  197 
Gil-Borges,  Dr.  Estaban,  6 
Gilman,  Charlolte  Perkins,  203,  241 
Girls,  better  protection  of,  67 
Gleaners,  29,  30 
Goebel  Election  Law,  37 
Good  Samaritan  Hospital,  29 
Green,   T.   M.,   Historic  Families  of 

Kentucky,  quoted,  2 

Hand  training  in  schools,  98,  100 
Harrison,  Mrs.  Ida  Withers,  21,  36, 

70,  71,  182,  183 
Hart,  Lucre tia,  7,  8 
Hart,  Thomas, -7 
Health  insurance,  139 
Housing,  48,  74,  163 
Hull-House,  92,  113,  244 
Hunt,  Mrs.  Frank,  29,  31 

Illiteracy,  49,  94,  97,  121,  189 

Industrial  education,  57,  98 

International  League  for  Peace  and 
Freedom,  244 

International  Women's  Suffrage  Alli- 
ance at  Geneva,  237 

Irishtown,  48,  49,  51,  53,  5^,  60,  82,  89, 
92,  104,  106,  120,  121,  122,  217 

Jackson,  Chloe,  134 

Jail,  county,  67 

Jenkins,  Burris  A.,  14,  53,  82 


INDEX 


273 


Jouett,  Matthew  Harris,  27 
Jubilee  Convention,  236 
Junior  Civic  Leagues,  46,  57 
Juvenile  court,  47,  55,  163;    legisla- 
tion, 53,  55,  80,  84,  86,  88,  162,  192 

Keller,  Jacob  S.,  34,  35 
Kelley,  Mrs.  Florence,  47,  155 
Kellogg,  Paul,  186 
Kelly,  Mrs.  George  Draper,  51 
Kentucky      Agricultural     and     Me- 
chanical College,  12 
Kentucky  Association  for  the  Preven- 
tion and  Relief  of  Tuberculosis,  129 
Kentucky  Education  Association,  53 
Kentucky   Educational  Commission, 
192 

Kentucky  Equal  Rights  Association, 
34,  198,  199,  200,  201,  202,  222,  230, 
231,  261 

Kentucky  League  of  Women  Voters, 
248,  262 

Kentucky  mountains,  public  health 
work  in,  66 

Kentucky  State  Board  of  Health,  142 

Kentucky      State      Federation      of 

Women's  Clubs,  34,   53,   89,    128, 

189,  190,  197,  222,  263 
Kentucky  Tuberculosis  Commission. 

See  Tuberculosis  Commission 
Kentucky,  University  of,  15,  43,  48, 

182 

Kindergarten,  51,  54,  60,  104,  108 
Kipling,  quoted,  241 
Knopf,  Dr.  S.  A.,  126 

Labor  movement,  243 

Langley,  Miss  E.  E.,  58,  59 

League  of  Nations,  245,  246 

Legislation,  principle  of,  37 

Legislation,  social.  See  Social  legis- 
lation 

Lexington  Associated  Charities.  See 
Associated  Charities  of  Lexington 

Lexington  Board  of  Education,  51, 
91,  92,  96,  100,  104,  107,  108,  131; 
Civic  League's  campaign  for  efficient 
Board  of  Education,  62,  65,  75 


Lexington  Herald,  xii,  24,  26,  56,  183, 
185,  186,  204,  223,  257 

Library  at  Lincoln  School,  in,  123 

Library,  Public,  57,  71 

Lincoln,  Robert  Todd,  19,  93,  109 

Lincoln  School.  See  Abraham  Lin- 
coln School 

Lindsey,  Judge  Ben  B.,  47,  55,  56,  84 

Liquor  traffic,  57,  71,  72 

Loan  sharks,  163 

Louisville,  xii,  8,  10,  39,  62,  63,  68, 
83,  87,  99,  126,  154,  202,  203,  223 

Louismlle  Evening  Post,  203 

Louisville  Herald,  ix,  211 

Lovejoy,  Owen,  47 

Lowry,  Mrs.  C.  B.,  65 

McClellan,  Mary  Nealy,  45,  46,  48,  79 
McCreary,   Governor  James  B.,   20, 

141,    211 
McDowell,  Anne  Clay,  18,  56,  154, 

176  • 
McDowell,  Ephraim,  3,  20 
McDoweU,   Major  Henry  Clay,    10, 

II,  15,  17,  60,  108,  121 
McDowell,  Magdalen  Harvey,  ix,  22, 

25,  126,  136,  154,  230,  231,  237 
McDowell,  Mary,  92,  94,  103,  113 
McDowell,    Nanette.    See    Bullock, 

Mrs.  Thomas  S. 
McDowell,  Judge  Samuel,  i,  55 
McDowell,  Judge  Samuel,  of  Mercer,  2 

McDowell,    Dr.    William    Adair,    x, 

3,  125,  136,  137,  237 
Mack,  Julian  W.,  84 
McNamara  case,  34,  39,  48,  182 
Madge,  name  of,  ix-x 
Manual  training,  54,  58,  98,  103,  105, 

123,  158 
Martineau,  Harriet,  4,  12 
Medical  inspection  in  schools,  60,  iii, 

131 
Melcher,  C.  R.,  65,  66 
Militant  suffragists,  204,  213,  214,  218 
Milk  fund,  131 
Model  playground,  71,  78,  114 


2  74        MADELINE  McDOWELL  BRECKINRIDGE 


Model  school,  72,  97,  108,  120 
Money,  methods  of  raising,  179-81 
Moore,  Mrs.  Philip  N.,  197 
Morrow,  Governor  Edwin  P.,  154,  235 
Morton,  Mrs.  Mary  Gratz,  21 

National  American  Sufifrage  Associa- 
tion, 198,  200,  201,  205,  207,  208, 
214,  218,  219,  221 

National  Child  Labor  Committee, 
74,  181 

National  Community  Service,  52 

National  Conference  of  Social  Work, 
74,  108,  181 

Neglected  children,  54,  85 

Negro.    See  Colored  children,  etc. 

Neville,  Linda,  45,  46,  62,  65,  66,  69, 
71,  79 

Newton,  Dr.  Heber,  186 

"  Night  riding,"  7,2, 

Norman,  Mrs.  Henderson  Danger- 
field,  19,  30 

Nunn,  Senator  Clem  S.,  235 

Nurse,  Madeline  McDowell  Breckin- 
ridge, 230 

Nurse,  visiting.     See  Visiting  nurses 

Olmsted,  Frederick  Law,  xii,  72 
Open-air  school  of  Lincoln  School,  60, 
78,  107,  108,  no,  III,  119,  123,  131 
Outdoor  school.    See  Open-air  school 

Pacifist  movement,  244 

Pankhurst,  Mrs.,  213,  218,  235,  236 

Park  Commission,  xi 

"Passing  of  an  Artist,"  26 

Paul,  Miss  Alice,  213,  220 

Penny  lunch  scheme,  67 

Penny  seed  packages,  52 

Physical  training  in  schools,  74 

Play,  preventive  and  constructive 
uses  of,  71,  73 

Playground  fund,  77 

Playgroutid,  model.  See  Model  play- 
ground 

Playgrounds,  48,  49,  S^,  54,  71,  75,  89, 
104,  105,  114 

Police  matron,  67,  69,  70,  71 


Political  education,  48,  238 

Poor,   159,   160,   175,   176.    See  also 

Poverty 
Porter,  Dr.  J.  W.,  167 
Portrait  of  Madge  for  Lincoln  School, 

121 
Poverty,  42,  82,  83,  84,  158,  159 
Presidential  suffrage,  200 
Probation  officers,  84,  86,  162;  adult, 

74 
Proctor,  29,  30,  31 
Protective  work  for  girls,  67 
Public  health,  56,  57,  66 
Public  Health  Nursing  Association, 

138,  139,  252 

Race  relationship,  problems  of,  54 

Ratification  of  federal  amendment 
by  Kentucky  Legislature,  xi,  198, 
201,  215,  216,  231,  235,  236 

Record-keeping,  financial,  of  social 
organizations,  167 

Recreation.  See  Playgrounds;  Sun- 
day recreation 

Recreational  technique,  training  in,  77 

Relief-giving,  indiscriminate,  170, 
172,  178. 

Relief  work,  167,  168 

Riis,  Jacob,  loi,  113 

Roark,  Professor  R.  N.,  45,  46,  53,  82, 
189 

Roark,  Mrs.  R.  N.,  189,  192 

Salvation  Army,  170-78 

School  attendance,  52,  57.  See  also 
Compulsory  school  attendance  law 

School  board  law,  62,  63,  80 

School  feeding,  67,  78,  132 

School  grounds,  beautification  of,  52 

School  improvement,  188 

School  medical  inspection.  See  Medi- 
cal inspection 

School  suffrage,  80,  89,  95,  184,  190, 
193,  199,  200,  202 

Schools,  colored.     See  Colored  schools 

Schools,  use  of,  as  social  and  civic 
centers,  91,  100-102,  109,  116,  117 


INDEX 


275 


Scott,  General  Hugh  L.,  16 

Scott,  Judge  Percy  L.,  68 

Shafroth  amendment,  221 

Slater  Fund,  67 

Snowden,  Mrs.  Ethel,  203,  204,  213 

Social  hygiene  movement,  74 

Social   legislation,    80-90,    129.    See 

also  Child-labor  law;    Compulsor>' 

school    attendance    law;     Juvenile 

court  legislation 
Social  settlements,  29-30,  10 1 
Social  welfare  league,  78 
Sound  Money  Campaign,  24,  t,^ 
South  American  republics,  5 
South,  Mrs.  John  G.,  200 
Stanley,.  Governor  A.  O.,  20,  143,  152, 

223 

State  aid  to  tuberculosis  sanatoria,  154 
State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs. 

See  Kentucky  State  Federation  of 

Women's    Clubs 
Stoll,  R.  P.,  48,  103 
Suffrage.     See    Presidential   suffrage; 

Ratification;  School  suffrage;  Votes 

for  women ;  Woman's  suffrage 
Suffrage  amendment  of  Congressional 

Committee,  221 
Suffrage    amendment    to    Kentucky 

constitution,  206,  222,  223 
Sunday  programs  and  recreation,  57, 

71 
Swimming-pool  of  Lincoki  School,  77, 

no,  114 

Tenney  Memorial  Fund,  Otis  S.,  78 

Todd,  Dr.  Lyman,  45 

Transient  persons,  162,  163,  170 

Transylvania  Club,  35 

Truant  children,  54,  85 

Truant  officers,  54,  83 

Tuberculosis,  x,  4,  561,  163;  campaign 
against,  125-55;  dispensary,  127, 
130,  134;  districts,  132,  133,  135; 
educational  campaign,  126,  130, 
134,  142;  legislation,  80,  127,  132, 
141;  Madge's  local  activities  in 
field  of,  130-41;  Madge's  state 
activities,  141-54;  sanatoria,  127, 
129,  132,  133,  141,  154 


Tuberculosis  Commission,  Kentucky; 
i3i»  }ih  141,  i42>  229;  Madge's 
contribution  to  work  of,  143-54 

Venereal  Diseases  Bureau,  70 

Vice  problem,  70,  71,  72 

Visiting  nurse,   126,    127,    130,   134, 

162 
Visual  education,  75 
Vital  Statistics,  Bureau  of,  89,  142 
Volunteer  in  social  work,  181 
Votes  for  women,  x,   182-231.    See 

also  Ratification;  Woman's  suffrage 

War  Camp  Community  Service,  76 
Wells,  Mrs.  Alice  Stebbins,  47,  67 
West  End,  91,  103,  104,  106,  109 
West  End  School,  51,  60,  104 
W^est  End  Women's  Club,  60 
Williams,  Dr.  U.  V.,  141,  149 
Willson,  Governor  Augustus  E.,  128 
Wilson,  Dr.  Dunning,  146 
Wilson,  Robert  Burns,  13,  19 
Wilson,  Samuel  M.,  45 
Woman's  Club  of  Central  Kentucky, 

35,  48,  65,  104,  182,  260 
Wohian's  club  movement,  188 
Woman's  page,  186 
"Woman's  Sphere,"  186 
Woman's  suffrage,  56,  144,  185.    See 

also  Ratification;  Votes  for  women 
Women,   early  efforts  in   behalf  of, 

182-98 

Women  offenders,  care  of,  67 
Women  students,  care  of,  at  Univer- 
sity of  Kentucky,  43,  182 
Women's     Emergency     Committee, 

Louisville,  39,  45 
Women's  Victory  Dinner,  245 
"Woodlake,"  10,  11,  14,  17,  20 
Woodland  Park,  50,  57,  66,  73,  181 
Working  children,  84,  89.    See  also 
Child-labor  law 

Yard  improvement  work,  52,  54 
Zueblin,  Charles,  47 


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